Loving Secrets
by 500yearsofwriting
Summary: It seemed like nothing could come between Ashton and Daniella. When they were together, everything around them disappeared and all they could see was each other. Ashton and Daniella could read each other like a book. They had memorized each other's harmonies, rhythms, and passions. At least so they thought. He was hers. She was his. But secrets keep them wondering, unsure.
1. Chapter 1

**Daniella's POV:**

"

I haven't seen him in months. This was the first time we've been apart for so long and it definitely affected our relationship. It was hard but at the same time, it made it 1000 times better when he did come to visit. I was waiting at the airport with a bunch of other girls. 'How the hell do they know what terminal they're coming out of?' I think to myself. They should be coming out in a couple minutes or so.

"Are you waiting for 5 seconds of summer too?" The girl next to me asks. I turn around to look at her and can't help but admire her features. Every time I see someone who looks so effortlessly beautiful I can't help but think out of all the girls and all the fans he chose me. I look out the window and see the plane start to land. The butterflies in my stomach grow and my heart starts beating faster and faster. He's on that plane. The guy I haven't seen in months. I hear all the girls start to squeal and scream because their idols are on that plane. They have no idea that to you they're not just idols. He's not just an idol. He's my everything. He's your best friend. He's mine.

"Yeah, I am" I answered the girl, whom I was pretty sure wasn't listening anymore. The doors to the terminal open and multiple people start flowing out of the gate. The anticipation in the room heightens and my heart starts beating faster than I thought it ever could.

Freeze.

He's there, right in front of me. The screaming from the crowd of girls was probably deafening but I couldn't hear it. All of my senses seemed to have shut off, just so my eyes could focus on the one person I've been longing to see for months. The lips I've been craving, the hands I've been dying to touch. I rush to the front of the crowd, probably pushing aside some crying girls, finally being able to use my voice and scream his name. Within a split second he turns around, clearly recognizing my voice. He jogs to me and picks me up from the crowd, swinging me around as I wrap my arms around his neck. His face is burrowed in my neck and I can feel his curly hair tickling my collarbone. He sets me down and gives me a light peck on the lips.

"I missed you so damn much." He says with his eyes staring into mine.

"You have no idea." I say in return giving him another tight squeeze. I'm slightly disappointed as he starts to walk away with my hand in his. I was hoping for a more dramatic 'I missed you so freaking much' kiss. My disappointment must have been evident on my face since he turns around and whispers into my ear. "Don't worry, I'm not leaving you with just that. I just don't want to make the boys jealous." With that said, he gives me a cheeky wink and a grin. It takes a while to get through the crowd of people. I turn around and see the other three guys talking to fans and taking pictures. That's sweet. As I head towards the baggage claim, Ashton stops and takes a couple pictures with some fans as well, just to be polite. Finally after a few minutes we make it to the baggage claim. It's pretty empty not counting the three other people from the plane, loitering various spots in the hall. As we're waiting for the luggage to start coming out, Ashton grabs my waist out of nowhere and kisses me. He grabs my lower back and I swing my hands to the back of his neck. He dips me down, causing me to giggle, while smiling.

"You have no idea how long I've been thinking about doing that." He says, pulling us back into a standing position. My heart is fluttering.

A man comes up to us and gives us a warm smile. "You two are adorable." Ashton blushes and I join him as I feel my cheeks get warm.

"Well one of us is adorable." Ash says brushing my cheek with his thumb.

"Well, we can't all be as adorable as me." I say jokingly, flipping my hair. He giggles. Oh god I could live off of his laugh.

"Awww but I'm so cute" he says imitating my voice.

"Uh, I do not sound like that." I smile.

"Mhmm, sure." He wraps his arm around me and pulls me in tighter as we wait for his bag. Suddenly, I hear the other three guys shouting behind me.

"Oi! No canoodling!"

"Keep it PG!"

"WE'RE TOO YOUNG AND INNOCENT FOR THIS!"

The other three boys run to Ash and I, screaming crazy things. God, I missed these weirdos. I get out of Ashton's grasp, despite the annoyed whine I get from him. I hug the other 3 boys and get pulled back into Ashton's chest the second I'm done. "She's mine!" He says and pouts to the other boys. I just giggle at his childish behaviour.

"And he's mine so no stealing him from me. I'm watching you!" The other boys give me a little suspicious stare but I just laugh it off. Their bags all show up next to each other (adorable), and once we grab them we start heading for the exit. Ashton wraps his arm around my waist and gives me a light squeeze. He kisses me on the head and whispers to me,

"You're not leaving my side tonight." causing me to blush.

"Ok." I say so quietly I didn't think he heard it. He just gives me another kiss on the cheek and we walk towards the door.

We're greeted by a warm breeze, even though it's late, as the doors welcome us to the City of Angels. A black van rolls up and all the guys put their bags into the trunk. We all hop into the van and Ashton and I claim the back as ours. He places his hand on my leg and gives it a squeeze as I rest my head on his shoulder. He kisses the top of my head and leans his head on mine. I look down at his watch and see that it's already 1:30 in the morning. Their flight was delayed and I didn't realize how late it was. One of the guys turns up the volume of the radio and my eyes start to close as Boulevard Of Brocken Dreams starts to play. Ash begins to sing along quietly while rubbing my leg, allowing me to drift off lightly.

He gives me a kiss again and he whispers to the other guys. "Look. She fell asleep. She's so cute when she sleeps".

"She's alright." Calum says, messing with him.

"Hey!...HEY! She is more than alright" He says and I blush. Stop it, he thinks I'm asleep.

"Haha we're just kidding with you man." Michael says. After that I fall asleep.

Before I know it I wake up to the van pulling up to the L.A. house. Ashton shifts from underneath me, probably trying not to wake me. That's sweet.

"Are we here already?" I ask, sleepily.

"Oh no, did I wake you up babe?" He says wrapping his arm around me. "No, it's okay. I was awake for the last couple of minutes." I tell him. His cheeks go bright red.

"So you umm..." He starts.

"Yes I heard you singing to me." I giggle with a hint of sleep still on my voice.

"I thought it would give you a good dream." he chuckles, squeezing my cheeks. He's still doesn't like to sing to me much. I guess he's not to secure about his singing voice, no matter how many time I tell him he's amazing. That's just how it is, I guess.

We hop out of the van and I sluggishly walk with him to the house as I wait for one of the guys to open the door. Once it is, I collapse on the couch. The guys decide to be as noisy as ever while I try to get some sleep. You'd think that after being on a 10 hour flight they'd be tired, but jet-lag's a bitch.

It's around 2:30 now and the other guys are ordering pizza. Ashton comes to sit next to me on the couch and rests his hand on my hip. "Lift your head." He whispers into my ear. I do so and he moves under my head so that it's resting on his lap. He starts playing with my hair and messes around with my fingers. "Are you gonna fall asleep?" He whispers.

"If you keep talking to me then no, I won't." I say jokingly.

"Well you're not gonna fall asleep on the couch." He picks me up, bridal style and tells the other guys that he's taking me upstairs. I rest my head on his chest blissfully, feeling even more sleepy to the steady sound of his heart beat.

I wake up to the sound of the TV in the background. I slowly open my eyes and adjust to the bright light. Once they do, I make out a figure sitting upright in bed with me. Ashton's flipping through the channels, clearly having trouble staying awake himself. I lean up and kiss him on the cheek. He flinches a bit. "You scared me" he giggles and looks at me with his loving hazel eyes. "You're so cute when you sleep."

"How long was I asleep?" I ask, rubbing my eyes.

"About an hour and a half. All the other guys are asleep as well." He replies.

I lift myself up against the headboard of the bed. "Well now I'm wide awake," I look at his weary eyes. "Aren't you tired?"

"No, not really I slept a lot on the plane." He says. I nod and we're quiet for a moment. "Sooo... what do you wanna do then?"

"You know what? I'm actually kind of hungry is there any pizza left?" I ask.

"Yes! I made the guys save you a piece." He says a little too excitedly and grabs my hand, leading me down the stairs. He pulls a chair out for me at the table and places a plate in front of me. He then takes the box of pizza out of the sad empty fridge. "Cold or hot?" He asks.

"Cold is fine." He puts a slice on my plate.

"Eat up." he says with a smile and kisses my cheek.

"Mmmmm. I haven't had pizza in forever." I moan taking a huge bite.

"Can I have a bite?" He asks. I nod. Of course he wants some.

I point the pizza at him and make a strange face. "Open up here comes the pizza plane." He giggles and I 'fly' the slice into his mouth as he tears off a piece.

"Pizza kiss." he whisper-shouts as he leaves a tomato sauce spot on my cheek with his lips.

"Haha yuck." I say wiping my cheek off.

"No! That was a symbol of my love!" He whines.

"I'm sorry. Can you give me another one?" I ask, teasing him.

"Well I'm going to need more pizza." He answers glancing at the slice in my hands. Oh I see, sneaky sneaky. I roll my eyes and get an idea.

"Ok, you can have some more." I say and before he can open his mouth I shove the pizza in his face and rub it all over. I can't help but start laughing at the tomato sauce covered geek standing in front of me with a shocked look on his face. "And that is a symbol of my love" I say in between giggles.

"Oh it's on." He says deadly serious. Suddenly, he picks me up and throws me over his shoulder.

"Stop! Put me down!" I screech. He throws me onto the couch, climbs on top of me and quickly covers my mouth.

"You don't want to wake the boys, do you?" I shake my head as if to say 'no' and he starts to smile an evil grin. "Good." He leans in for a kiss but I dodge his face by centimetres.

"No kisses for tomato boy, I don't want to cheat on my boyfriend." He looks at me with a kind of 'you've got to be kidding me face', but I just giggle and continue with my little story. "You see tomato boy, my boyfriend is really sweet, and funny, and handsome, and everything I could ever ask for in a guy." I stop to see him smiling at me. "He's perfect and he's all mine. I have missed him like crazy ever since he's been gone and now that he's back, I don't want to miss a thing."

I stop and look into his eyes. All of a sudden he bursts into song. "And I don't wanna miss a thing! Even when I dream of y-"

"That was such a perfect moment! You ruined it!" I interrupt him mid-song, hitting his chest.

"I'm sorry, you song-bombed me." I pout at him but he just looks at me and leans in. Our lips attach and this time there isn't anyone to interrupt us, finally. His lips are warm and soft as he kisses me. I'm hyperaware of his chest against mine. I knot my fingers through his soft curls as he holds onto my waist. We kiss for what feels like an eternity. But a good eternity. He starts to move his lips from my mouth to my neck causing my heart to beat faster.

"Wait." I stop him.

"What?" He asks as he breathes heavily.

"What are you doing?" I ask.

"I'm kissing you" he smiles. "Why is something wrong?" He gets up off of me.

"No everything's fine. It just felt like you were thinking we were gonna... umm-"

"Oh." His face goes red. "No. I...I didn't. Umm no only if you know you're ready. I wasn't trying to force anything." He says stuttering.

"Good 'cause I don't think I'm ready yet." I stand up and wrap my arms around him as he hugs me back.

"Of course. It's up to you babe. I just want you to be comfortable." He kisses me and hugs me again. Just then the lights by the stairs turn on. "Great." he mumbles. Luke walks down the stairs and sees us standing in the living room, hugging.

"Wow, is that really all you two do, hug? Seems pretty boring." I laugh at his sleepy voice, it sounds more raspy than usual.

"Trust me, we do WAY more than just hug." I say, addressing Luke and look back at Ashton. He smiles down at me with a cheeky grin and raises his eyebrows, leaning in for a kiss.

"Way more." He whispers before kissing me again. Luke makes an 'ugh' noise behind us and I can't help but laugh. Although I have to admit, we are being a lot more 'touchy' than before. Maybe I should try cutting down on the whole PDA in front of the boys. Then again, I haven't seen him in ages so screw that.

"What are you doing down here anyway?" Ashton asks.

"I'm getting water, jet-lag is not doing me well." At the word 'jet-lag' he yawns and removes his hands from my waist to cover his mouth.

"Is someone tired?" I coo at his sleepy eyes.

"No. I'm not tired." He places his hands back on my hips and pulls me closer "I don't want to be tired. I've been stuck with 3 guys for the past 5 months and I want to spend all the time I can with you."

I peck him on the lips. "So do I but I'd rather spend time with you when you're sleeping rather than spending time with you when you're grumpy. Now come on." I start pulling him towards the stairs.

"Nooooo" he whines.

"I promise I'll cuddle with you until you fall asleep." I try to coax him up to bed.

"Speaking of cuddling, I got you a gift!" He runs up the stairs pulling me behind him with a sudden burst of energy, leaving Luke sipping on water in the kitchen.

He runs through the bedroom door, pulling me in and stopping right in the middle of the room. "Close your eyes." I cover my eyes and let him lead me to the closet. I hear him unzip his suitcase and hear him ripping clothes out of it, letting them land everywhere.

One t-shirt comes and whips me in the head.

"Ow!" I giggle, rubbing my head. It didn't really hurt but I always react to stuff like that. I guess I'm just weird that way.

"Oh! Sorry, just one sec. Ah ha! Here it is! Okay, open your eyes." I do as I'm told and open them to see him holding a giant teddy bear with a T-shirt on it that reads: 'for when your cuddle buddy is off on tour'. I start giggling, 'cause that is pretty funny, and he hands it to me. "But wait, turn it around!" He says excitedly. I turn the teddy bear over and see a small zipper on it. I unzip it and in the bear are candies, photos and letters.

"What is this stuff?" I ask the smiling boy in front of me.

"Those are candies from every place we went that I thought you might like. And I took a photo in every city of something that reminded me of you. And those are letters I wrote for you just about random things for you to read whenever you're not with me." His entire face has lit up in the sense that he was smiling with every inch of expression he could muster. I start tearing up as I read one of the notes.

"Today the interviewer asked us if we were happy. I said yes of course we're happy. We are the happiest we've ever been. I was telling the truth about being happy. But I couldn't truly be the happiest I've ever been until I get to come home to Dani."

I look up at him, "This is amazing."

"You're amazing" he says back dreamily. I put the bear on the ground and jump into his arms. I wrap my legs around him and throw my arms around his shoulders as he places his hands under my legs to keep me up. He kisses me deeply and sweetly. His heart is beating quickly against my chest. He carries me out of the closet and throws me onto the bed. I giggle as I bounce on the mattress.

Here we are again kissing for an eternity. He's hovering over me, resting on his elbows. His right hand moves down to my hips as my hands tangle in his hair again. I love his hair. The way it looked so effortlessly messy but neat. I love his touch. His kiss. His eyes. His smile. His laugh. Oh god, his laugh is everything. Everything. He was kissing me more passionately than before. He seemed to not get enough. That no matter how much closer we got, it wouldn't be enough. His tongue licked my lip and I took a moment before letting him in. We haven't had that many proper make out sessions. Before he left on tour though, he made sure I wouldn't forget him, like that was possible, and I made sure he wouldn't forget me. That was a kind of desperate kind of kiss, as if we would never see each other again. Now was different. Now he was kissing me and never gave

the intention of letting go.

His hands found the hem of my shirt and his fingers slipped underneath. He kept his hands on my hips, but he was touching my skin now. His hands were warm and his fingers coarse from the occasional guitar playing. His lips moved down to my neck and I knew he wouldn't do anything without my consent, so I let him. I knew there was going to be a mark there tomorrow but I didn't care, I wanted to be this close to him. He was a drug. A drug I couldn't get enough of and having him here was like relapsing. It felt good, but bad at the same time.

As he held my skin, I grabbed his shirt and lifted it up. He let go of me for a second and pulled his shirt over his head causing his hair to mess up and tousle. He was gorgeous. I put my hands on his bare chest and moved them up and down rubbing into his skin.

"Your hands are cold." he says. He grabs them in between his to warm them up.

"You're amazing." I tell him, putting more stress on the word "you're" as if to correct him from before. He leans back down and kisses me on the crook of my neck and on my collarbone. His hands hold the skin of my waist tightly as he moves them under my body so that his hands are rubbing my bare back. He pulls me closer to him.

"I'll be yours forever." He whispers into my ear. I kiss him on the neck and tighten my grip on him.

"Promise?" I ask.

"I promise."

I smile into his neck and squeeze my eyes shut. I don't want to lose him. Ever. "I love you." I whisper into his neck. This was the first time I admitted it to him or to anyone really. Then again, I know it's true, my friends know it. Damn. I am whipped. He pulled away and looked me straight in the eyes.

"I love you so freaking much." I smiled the biggest I ever had and bury my face back into his neck. He shifts his weight and lays down next to me. I was still wearing my clothes that I wore to the airport and didn't have anything to change into so I quickly got up and pulled a jumper from his closet. I quickly took off my top and put the jumper on in the closet. I got a pair of boxers from his drawer and pulled them over my own underwear. Once I was done, I walked back into his bedroom and saw him staring at me with a lazy smile.

"She looks so perfect standing there in my crappy store-bought underwear..." He starts to sing half-heartedly. I roll my eyes and crawl into bed next to him and kiss him again.

"Perfect." He whispers into my ear as I rest my head on his chest and his arms wrap around my waist.

"Perfect." I mumble before drifting off to sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

The rays of sun coming in through the window wake me up as I hear the muffled sound of people talking downstairs. I turn to my right and see him sleeping. The covers have fallen off of him and all he's wearing is his cute boxers. In hopes that I wouldn't wake him, I slowly get up, trying to stop the bed from shifting. I was happy he was finally sleeping. I knew he was tired last night; he just didn't want to tell me.

I go over to his side of the bed and raise the sheets over him to keep him warm. Before I leave I place a kiss on his cheek and I tuck a small curl, which has fallen over his forehead, back into place. I close the blinds so that the light of the room is dimmed. As I do so, I look out the window for a few seconds and I stare out into the backyard. It was bigger than I thought it was. It was modern, with it's long pavement driveway, swimming pool, and basketball hoop. But despite the man-made features, the pavement was lined with rows and rows of bright green trees and multi-colored plants, giving the backyard a sense of natural beauty as well. I walk out, closing the door behind me.

I lean up against the wall and smile as I think of last night. I said I loved him. He said it back. I feel my cheeks getting hot and start feeling weak in the knees. The way he was kissing me like he did last night and running his hands over my body. I shiver at the thought. I've never felt his touch that way before. I always thought it would be scary but with Ashton it felt as if his touch was keeping me safe from whatever it was I was afraid of. After I finally compose myself I walk downstairs to get breakfast. Once I get to the dining room I see all the other guys seated around the kitchen table, eating cereal and veggie-mite toast. Typical.

"Good morning Daniella." Calum says smiling. "Is Ashton still sleeping?"

"Yeah, he refused to sleep last night so we didn't go to bed 'till late. Did you guys sleep well?" I ask them.

"As well as I can with jet-lag I guess. He was so happy to see you he couldn't even sleep on the plane." Michael replies, raising his eyebrows.

"What? He told me slept on the plane" I say.

"Did he? Well nope. All he could talk about was you and seeing you and being with you. He told us that he was gonna tell you he loved you." my heart flutters.

"He told you that?" I ask.

"Of course. He was so excited about it too. Did he tell you? That he loved you?" They asked.

"Ye-" suddenly a voice cuts me off.

"Yes. Yes I did." I look up and see him standing at the bottom of the stairs. "And she said it back." He says smiling as he walks to me and wraps his arms around my waist. He gives me a light peck on the cheek and I blush. It was still new to me. We both sit down at the table and grab some toast, I was starving.

"What do you wanna do today before the guys and I's show?" Ashton asks me with a mouthful of bread. Nice. Still charming though.

"I don't know, what do you guys wanna do?" I reply, turning to the other guys.

"Oh no. You are not pulling us into this. You two are gonna be all couple-y and I do not need to see that. I've seen enough over Skype." Luke says. I giggle and take another bite of my toast. Ashton flashes a smile at me and I go back to my breakfast.

The rest of the meal is filled with random stories about things that happened on tour, crazy fans and interviews. "It was really awkward when the interviewer asked us if we were single because I was the only one who didn't raise their hand and they immediately start asking me all these questions. I'm pretty sure the boys are sick of hearing the same story over and over again." Ash says.

"Have you kept up with us while we were on tour?" Luke asks.

"I have a little. I saw you guys perform on The Ellen Show that was great. I love Ellen. Oh and of course the Jimmy Fallon performance was perfect! I laughed my ass off!" I laughed as I remembered the interview. Jimmy and 5sos were the perfect comedy duo.

After breakfast I excused myself to Ash's room so I could get changed, after all I was still wearing his boxers and sweater. I was getting changed in his room and I hear a whistle from behind me. I turn around, quickly trying to cover myself up.

"Ashton?!" I scream frantically.

"Well that's something I wouldn't mind seeing everyday." I him say cheekily.

"Oh my god Ashton! I'm changing!" I can feel the blood rush to my cheeks and I quickly pull my shirt back on. He starts walking towards me with a cheeky grin on his smug face.

"I've seen you in a bikini, how's this any different?" He says as he wraps his arms around my waist.

"Because-I don't-because bikinis- and-bras and-underwear and-because-BECAUSE!" I say flustered.

"Because...because? That's your excuse? Uh huh. Sure." He kisses my lips lightly. "Just know, you look hot in both." He winks at me after he finishes talking.

"Ugh. You suck." I sigh into his chest.

"But you love me anyway." My heart skipped a beat when he said that. It was still new to me, but it was a good kind of new. Not the scary new like most of the news I have gotten in the past. It was the same as his touch, it was...well I loved it.

I put on a sundress and flats and leave my hair natural. It was a gorgeous day outside so we decided to roam the city. He's waiting outside of the room rather impatiently after I kicked him out.

"Are you ready yet or what?" He says jokingly through the bedroom door, getting a little laugh out of me.

"Yes I am." I walk out of the bedroom and see him leaning up against the doorway with his arms crossed over his chest. Once he sees me he smiles.

"Damn. You look good babe." He says as he sticks out his hand and I grab it. We walk hand-in-hand down the stairs and to the front of the house. Before we leave I quickly say good-bye to the other boys and head out. "See you guys later!"

We both walk outside and the weather is perfect. The sky is a bright blue color and the clouds are scarce. The only clouds in sight are as white as freshly fallen snow and show no sign of rain.

"So, where to first?" He asks, giving my hand a little squeeze after we've walked a couple of paces from the house.

"Lets go shopping! I saw something at a store I wanted to get you!" I tell him.

"Babe, you don't have to get me anything. You're all I need." He says cheesily and gives me a kiss on the cheek.

"No," I hit him lightly on the arm for the comment. "You got me that amazing gift and I really want to get this for you. No matter what you say!" I tell him and point my finger at him, not having any intention of letting him get out of this one.

"Alright then, lead the way my lady." He grins and I roll my eyes at his formal manner. Dork

We were walking hand in hand down the boulevard looking at all the shops as we passed, but I had one in mind. I'm pretty sure he wouldn't expect it, but we were passing a bunch of stores he really liked and he started to get pretty confused.

"Where are we going babe?" He questions. I simply giggle.

"You'll see." He lets out a deep breath, a little frustrated that he didn't know where I was taking him. At the same time he was excited, this was our first day out together in ages, and he was happy he could show me off to the world. I stop abruptly in front of a store.

"Here we are." I look to him and his face is all scrunched up in confusion, but at the same time he's still smiling.

"Ok..." I smile and pull him into the store.

"Hi, I ordered something a couple of weeks ago." I say to the cashier as I scuffle through my purse and pull out a receipt and hand it to him.

"Ok, one moment please" the cashier walks behind the counter and leaves us alone. He wraps his arms around my waist and locks his fingers behind my back.

"So, a music shop. What are we doing here?" He asks and starts looking around the store. I take this opportunity to appreciate his features. His sharp jawline, his dark lashes. The light stubble on his chin. The way some of his curls were more defined than others and the way his hazel eyes shined when he looked at all the instruments around him, he looks at them as if he were looking at his entire life. Well, then again music is his entire life. I don't think anything will ever make Ashton happier than music. He looks back at me and I quickly look down.

"I know, I know. I'm beautiful." He jokes. I look back up at him and blush. Just then the cashier comes out from the back room with a larger box-like thing.

"Here you are, still in its' packaging." I pay the man and thank him. I hand Ash the box and he opens it. The first expression I see on his face is confusion.

"Wha-"

"-It's a playlist" I blurt out. He looks at me, still kind of confused "It's a record of all the songs I think of when I see you. It's really cheesy, but it's so that you can think of me when you're on tour. Also there's a USB with the songs so you can download them on your pho-" He cuts me off by kissing me. My hands immediately fall onto his neck as he keeps one hand on my cheek and one hand holding the box. He pulls away after a couple a seconds.

"It's perfect." He says dreamily. I blush as he grabs my hand and pulls me out of the store. Little did he know that he wouldn't need that playlist by the time he got his second gift.

"This gift is perfect." He says happily. He notices me smiling really big and blushing. "What are you hiding?" He asks suspiciously.

"What me? Nothing." I say keeping the secret in. He giggles. I love his laugh. I loved making him laugh.

"Okay...but I'm suspicious," he says squinting and looking into my eyes. He leans in and pecks me. We both continue walking for a while. After a couple of minutes he looks down at his watch.

"Do you wanna grab a bite to eat?"

"Do you think we could get a sandwich to go and eat at the park? It's such a great day outside." He smiles at me.

"You're full of great ideas." He wraps his arms around me and we both walk to the sandwich shop.

The two of us sit on the grass in the park and are slowly eating away at our sandwiches. "Do you want a bite of my sandwich?" He asks me, tearing a piece of his sandwich and holding it up to me.

"No I'm good. But I need to tell you something." I tell him. He looks at me oddly. I scoot in closer to him and I wrap my arms around his neck and he wraps his arms around my waist. He starts kissing me. I pull away even though I don't want him too.

"Wait."

"Whats wrong" he asks.

"It's just. I've been thinking about you going on tour again in a few days. An-"

"Babe let's not talk about that right now. I just want to think about being with you. Nothing else." He kisses me again and this time I let him keep going. I kiss him back grabbing his hair.

"It's just that," he kisses me, "I think maybe," He kisses me again trying to get me to stop talking. "I should come with you this time."

He stops kissing me and just looks at me. His eyes become bright. "Are you saying you can come with us this time?" He asks excitedly. All I do is smile. "Jesus I love you." He kisses me. "I love you," he pecks my lips, "I love you," again, "I love you." He rolls me around on the grass so that he's on top of me. His body was heavy but to me it felt weightless. He checks to see if anyone is around but the coast is clear. He then whispers in my ear, "Let's make this night unforgettable." He smiles and kisses me. He then works his way down to my jaw, then my neck.

"But not here!" I whisper-scream.

He chuckles lightly. "Sorry. I just got carried away." He bites his lip and kisses me one more time. He pulls me up off of the grass. And wraps his arm around my waist. "Shall we?" He asks.

"We shall." I giggle at his strange choice of words as he leads the way home. My mind was filled with thoughts of what he meant when he said 'unforgettable'. Well, not really. I knew what he meant. I was pretty sure I was ready as well. I looked up at him as he was looking forward. Yes. I was ready. I knew it would be with him and I knew he would be gentle. And after last night it was evident that he cared about my comfort and my boundaries. He loved me.

We get home after what seems like forever and walk into the house. "We're going upstairs." he tells the other boys in the kitchen without any other greeting.

"Oh, really?"

"Mhmmm."

"USE PROTECTION!" The other boys say while we walk upstairs. I blush and giggle a little nervously.

Once we get to the room he closes the door and leans me up against it, immediately crashing his lips into mine. Okay. I guess we are just going for it then. My hands go for his hair as he grips at my waist.

"Jump." He whispers into my ear, breaking off the kiss momentarily. I do so and he catches me. His hands are on my bum supporting my weight. I can't help but smile into the kiss. He picks me up properly, holding all of my weight and he carries me over to his bed. He throws me down, causing me to laugh as he crawls on top of me. He re-attaches his lips quickly to mine and slowly moves down my jawline. My chin. My neck. My collarbone. He starts sucking at the skin there and I can't help but moan lightly. I can feel him smile against my skin, clearly happy that he can make me feel that way.

"Stop smiling." I say, a little embarrassed.

"Why? Am I not allowed to enjoy this?" He asks cheekily, grinning down at me.

"You are-"

"I'm glad that I can make you feel the way I do. I'm here with the most beautiful girl in the world and you expect me not to smile?"

I blush at his compliment. "Shut up." I say smiling. He motions locking his lips and smiles at me. I roll my eyes and he chuckles before kissing me again. I forget about his comment and get lost in the kiss. His hands are gripping my waist and are moving up and down my sides. His lips move down my neck again and he finds another spot to 'mark' me.

He comes back up to my lips and I kiss him quickly before tugging at the hem of his t-shirt. "Off" I whisper. He does so, barely moving his lips away from mine. My hands start to roam his bare chest as he continues kissing my neck. His hands sneak under my dress and he stops for a moment looking at me for consent. I bite my lip and nod. He moves his hands and helps me take off your dress. He tosses it aside and stops.

I'm just in my bra and underwear now. He just stares at my body and starts to smile "Beautiful." I blush and he kisses me again. His hands return to my hips but they start to roam over my stomach. I shiver under his touch. The kiss becomes more passionate as his tongue slips into my mouth. I wrap my legs around his back and his left hand goes straight to my upper thigh as he continues to support his weight with the right.

My heart pounds because I know what's next. My hands become sweatier. He keeps kissing me slowly moving down my body. He pauses for a second and looks up at me pushing my hair behind my ears. "Are you okay?" He asks me. This is how I knew I was ready. He wanted to make sure I was okay. Comfortable. Safe. I nod my head, reassuring him. His smile becomes wide and bright. "You pretty sure?" He looks at me.

"Just shut up and do it." I giggle as I run my hands over his bare shoulders. I could feel that his body temperature has risen and his shoulders feel hot under my hands. He slowly makes his way down and kisses my stomach. "I love you Dani," he says, as he gets closer. I shiver again. I was in love and happy and scared all at the same time and I didn't know how that could be but for some reason I liked this feeling. I liked that he made me feel this way.

He kept kissing me and kissing me without stopping. His hands feverishly moved up and down my thighs until he held my waist close. I grabbed his hair and pulled it gently. I gripped tightly against him. I closed my eyes as I felt his touch. Fuck.

Once we were finished I lay next to him with my head on his still shirtless chest. I can feel his chest moving up and down from his breathing. His hands start rubbing my arms and I feel his fingers lingering over my skin. He pulls me in and kisses me on the cheek. We are both silent. We both just lay there taking in the moment. This is a new chapter of our lives and it was a chapter I was happy with. A chapter I didn't want to end. I turn and look into his hazel eyes, still filled with passion.

He smiles at me. "Gorgeous." he whispers to me. I blush.

"What?" I ask.

"You're gorgeous." he says moving in closer to me. He starts running his fingers through my hair. "You make me happy" he tells me.

"You-" he cuts me off.

"I don't think I can explain to you how happy I am that you're mine. And that I love you." He says to me.

"Ash." That's all I can say, as I kiss him and close my eyes listening to his heartbeat.


	3. Chapter 3

I wake up to the sound of light snoring. I open my eyes and feel an arm lightly wrapped around my waist. I turn around and see him. He looks so peaceful. His eye lashes lightly fluttering as his chest rises and falls. His bare chest. I take a moment to remember what happened last night and smile. I look under the covers and realize that I'm wearing a bra and underwear, and to my relief, he was wearing a pair of briefs too. We must have changed after... you know. I might have been fine with it last night but it still feels strange sleeping completely naked.

I get up out of bed and pull over a giant shirt and boxers from his closet. I really need to get more of my clothes over here, I mean he only has a certain amount of clothes as well and I don't want to waste all of them. Without waking him up, I sneak out of the bedroom and head down to the kitchen to see 3 pairs of eyes staring back at me.

"Um. Good morning" I say awkwardly.

"Hey Daniella. Where's Ashton?"

"Oh he's still sleeping." I make my way to the kitchen nervously not being able to stop myself from smiling like an idiot as Michael follows me. I reach for the cupboard to get a bowl out and I feel my hair slip over my neck on to my back.

"What's on your neck?"

I freeze. "Um, I-uh-nothing." Michael grabs my shoulders, turns me around and moves my hair back.

"Aha! I was right! You two did it last night!" I pull away from him and feel the blood rush to my cheeks.

"I-"

"-You're just jealous because you're not getting any." I turn around and Ashton comes up behind me and whispers in my ear. "Good morning babe." He kisses my cheek and wraps his arms around me. Michael gets really flustered and awkward. Ash just looks at him and smirks "Ashton 1. Michael 0". Michael leaves us alone in the kitchen, but not before he dramatically rolls his eyes at us.

Ashton pulls my hair from my neck and purses his lips. "Oof. Maybe I shouldn't have been so rough with those hickeys." I blush at his comment.

"I like them."

"Yeah? Me too." He starts leaning in as his words turn more into a whisper. "They say 'Ashton's girl. Do not touch. Mine. Mine. Mine." On the last 'mine' he brings his lips to mine. I wrap my arms around his neck and he pulls me in closer, locking his fingers around my waist.

He pulls away and smiles. "So, should we tell the boys the good news?" I look at him shocked.

"Um. I don't feel comfortable telling the other guys about our sex life. And I think you're going pretty far by saying that's 'good news'. Besides I'm pretty sure one of them already knows and he's probably already told-" he cuts me off with a loud laugh. "What?"

"I meant about you going on tour with us" he says, clearly amused.

"Oh... Yeah... That." I mentally slap myself as he grabs my hand and pulls me into the dinning room. All three of them are smiling like 4 year olds on Christmas morning and I know they know. Great.

"So, guys, we have some news..." Ashton starts.

"I highly doubt that's news. Then again, maybe for him, he's been soooooo lonely."

"OH MY GOD DID YOU GET HER PREGNANT?!"

"Bro you're too young!"

"We'll have to quit the band!"

"We need to take care of this child!" The boys rant on.

"NO! Oh my god no! I'm not pregnant!" I shout over the loud chatter.

"Oh." The three boys says in unison.

"Dani's coming on tour with us in three days" Ash says for me.

"Really?!" Luke is the first one to respond and they all cheer loudly and give me a huge group hug.

"Hey hey hey! No hugging my girlfriend! She's mine!" Ashton says trying to pull the boys off me. I giggle a little at his sudden jealousy.

"Why? Is someone jealous?"

"No! I just don't want any of these geniuses stealing you" He admits gesture to the three boys standing by the table. I shake my head at his silly worry but decide to just let it slide for now.

The boys leave us alone and I wrap your arms around his waist. I kiss him as he moves his hands up to my cheeks.

I pull away and say "That's never gonna happen." and kiss him again.

This time, he's the one to break the kiss. "I have to go to a writing session with Michael today.

Are you gonna be okay here without me?" He asks me.

"Ashton. I'm a big girl I can take care of myself." I tell him.

"I know. I know. I just I hate leaving you all al-" I cut him off be fore he can finish.

"-It's gonna be fine. We'll be together all the time on tour." His smile widens as he remembers and he grabs my hands, rubbing them with his fingers. "So go to your writing session and I'll do my thing. Then we can hang out later, ok?" I say and he nods. I kiss him until I hear a voice from upstairs.

"Ashton! You ready?" Michael shouts. "Yeah!" He replies and gives me a quick kiss. He grabs his bag and jogs after Mikey out the door.

After finishing breakfast I go upstairs to change and just watch tv for a while whilst I try to think of something to do in this giant city alone. A little knock comes from the door and I turn to see Luke standing there. He comes in and sits next to me on the bed, but not too close.

"Are you as bored as I am?" He asks me.

"Probably even more." I say, getting up from the bed.

"Do you want to go...maybe...do something?" He asks hesitantly. I didn't know what to say. It wouldn't hurt to get out of the house and I didn't want him to be bored either.

"Yeah sure! Maybe we could go shopping. I didn't get anything yesterday and I need to get some new things for the tour."

"Sure, I need to get a few things too." I smile at him and grab my bag. The two of us head out the door and start walking down the street since the mall wasn't that far. As we're walking we talk a little.

"So, anything new I need to know about?" I ask him.

"Hmmm... I got a new pair of skinny jeans. They're skinny. And jeans." I laugh at his awkward attempt at conversation.

"Ok you don't have to act like a complete stranger around me. Just because I'm dating one of your best friends doesn't mean you can act normal around me." He takes his hands out of his pockets and slows down.

"Well that's just it. He's been very clear about boundaries. He said it this morning and I think you took it as a joke but he's genuinely worried that you would leave him for one of us. He gave us a full on lecture the other day on how long we can hug you or where we can touch you." I blush when he says that, awkward. He grabs my arm and stops me in the street. "Look that guy will not stop talking about you. Everywhere we go it's like 'Oh, Dani would love this. Do you think I should call her?' Every time a fan tries to kiss him, he gets stressed for the rest of the week, worrying that you'll find out and break up with him. You mean a lot more to him than you could ever imagine."

I stop to take in what he just said. "He means everything to me. How do you think I feel every time I see pictures of beautiful, perfect, skinny fans following you guys around? I mean, sure. Good for you guys but all I can think about is why? Why me? You have a pick of so many girls in the world, why me?!" I shout the last part and a couple of people turn their heads in our direction.

He puts both his hands on my shoulders. "Because he loves you. And that may not be enough of a reason to you but it definitely is enough for him." I sigh and slouch my shoulders a for a bit. He pulls me into a hug and releases me rather quickly. I look at him oddly and he just shrugs. "Sorry, captain's orders." I laugh and the two of us continue walking down the street.

Without saying anything I walk into a dress store and he groans slightly. "Hey, this can't be all fun for you, remember? No stealing me away." I remind him in a joking tone.

He sighs. "Right." And walks in behind me. "Is this gonna take long?" He asks.

"Hey there are pretty girls here. While I'm shopping why don't you try talking to one of them." I say as I run my hands through the racks of sundresses and tank-tops.

"Why don't you try talking to one of them" I hear him mock me under his breath. I smile a little at his failed attempt at it. I pick out a few dresses that I like and start walking towards the dressing room.

"Where are you going?" He panics, following me like a dog.

"Into the dressing room. Relax." I say, looking at the lost puppy behind me.

"Don't leave me in the middle of a woman's shop alone!" He begs me.

"Well I can't bring you in here Luke. I'm pretty sure 'you may not be in a changing room with my girlfriend' is definite boundary." I smile as I push him out of the room lightly and close the door on him.

"Okay. Well. Fine. I'll just... I'll just uhhh... wait here then." he says awkwardly. I try on 4 dresses trying to find ones Ashton would like. I know he'd say I looked great either way but still.

I liked 3 of them but I wasn't sure about the 4th. I open the door to ask Luke for help. I tap him on the shoulder and he turns to look at me. "Do you think Ashton would like this dress on me?" I ask. He just looks at me, dazed, for a moment.

"Umm yeah. I think yeah... he would" he says stuttering.

"Are you just saying that because you're bored and me buying these dresses means we can leave?" I giggle.

"No, I'm serious you look... You look beau-" he cuts himself off and I see his cheeks turn a slight red hue. "You look good. He'll love it." he says with a slight smile. I blush a little at the compliment... kinda.

"Thank you." I smile. "Now we can go. As soon as I change I can pay and we can leave this devilish place." I give him a hug and he hugs me back.

"Thank god!" He praises as I walk back to the dressing room to change. "And no problem."

Once I payed for the dresses I got a phone call. I answered it hearing a familiar voice on the other end. "Hey babe!"

"Hey Ash, what's up?"

"We just finished writing and we're on our way home. The song we wrote is amazing, I can't wait for you to hear it!"

"Well then I can't wait to hear it either! Anyway, Luke and I were just shopping and I think we're done for today. We'll be home soon as well."

"Ok. He isn't getting too friendly is he? Because if he is I can totally talk to him and set him straight."

"Relax babe, it's just you and me."

"You know it! Ok, I'll see you at home, love you!"

"Haha, love you too, bye." I hang up to phone and see Luke staring at me.

"So you're really at the 'I love you' stage, huh?"

"Yeah." I blush. "But don't worry, you'll find your lover soon enough." I tease him and squish his cheeks.

"Ow. Now I remember why I don't hang out with you." We both laugh and head home.

Once I open the front door I'm greeted by a long kiss and a warm hug. Ash squeezes me tightly and keeps his hands on the small of my back. "Hello." He smiles down at me after pulling away.

"Hi" I giggle.

"Did you have fun?" He asks. I nod and he kisses my head before speaking again. "So, I was thinking, maybe you and I could go out. Maybe for dinner or something?" I nod and kiss him again lightly.

"That sounds great."

"Good, wear something nice, I know exactly what we're gonna do."

"Wha-" I start.

"Nope, it's a surprise." he says with a wink and kisses me again as he disappears into the kitchen. I decide to head upstairs to his room and try to pick out a dress to wear.

I sit in the closet, going through dress after dress, not being able to decide which one to wear. I have an amazing black dress, but I also just bought that dress that Luke said Ashton would love. After loads of decision making, I decide to go with the new dress because I was eager to let him see it. I put the dress on and get everything else ready before walking downstairs. Luke's standing in front of the couch in the living room looking up at me.

"Wheres Ashton?" I ask him.

"He's not ready yet." He replies. "So you decided to go with that dress? Good choice." He gives me a wink as he puts his hands into his pockets.

"You're just saying that because you helped me pick this one out." I say smiling at him.

"Yeah," duh. "but I mean you do look amazing. Ashton is one lucky guy." Before I can say anything Ash comes up from behind me and wraps his arms around me, kissing me on the cheek.

"I know. I am the luckiest guy in the world." I blush and he nuzzles his head into my neck. "Ready to go?" He asks.

"Absolutely." I say smiling back at him. Luke looks to the ground and slumps down on the couch. Something has been bothering him all day but I wasn't sure what. I intend to find out sooner or later.

"Have fun." Luke says looking down at his phone. Ashton just looks at me and gives me a cheeky grin.

"Trust me, we will."


	4. Chapter 4

We start walking down the road with our hands intertwined. "Where are we going?" I ask

"Somewhere special."

"Mhmm okay."

"Just wait. You'll love it I promise." He opens the car door for me and makes a rather formal gesture "M'lady" he bows down and waves his hand infront of the door.

"Why thank you sir." I say in probably the worst British accent and giggle as I step into the car. He runs around the car and gets in the drivers seat after he closes my car door. "I didn't know you could drive in LA." I comment as he adjusts his mirrors and catch him fixing his hair.

"Yeah well, we pulled some strings."

Before he starts the car he leans over and kisses me lightly on the lips. "One more thing. If this is going to be a surprise, you can't see where we're going." He pulls a bandana out of his pocket and smirks. Part of me found it cute that Ashton carried around an extra bandana but another part of me was hoping he washed it since he last drummed with it on. "I hope you like the dark." I roll my eyes playfully and turn my head around so he can tie the bandana around my head to cover my eyes. Once he's done I sit back properly in my seat. "Can you see anything?"

I giggle. "No."

"You sure?"

I laugh. "Yes! I'm sure." He starts the car. I can hear the engine purr but it doesn't move. Right before I was going to ask him about it I feel warm lips pressed to mine. I smile into the kiss and feel slightly disappointed as he pulls away. No need to rush Ash.

"Ok, here we go." The car starts moving and we're on our way. We drive for about 20 minutes or 6 songs from the radio. The car stops and I hear him get out. He opens my door and I can feel a slight breeze coming from outside the car. I smell salt. He gives me a hand, helping me out of the car and leads me a couple of steps away from the car.

"Can I take this off now?" I smile, placing my hands on the tie in the back of my head.

"Yeah, just one sec." He goes behind me, removes my hands from the tie, pulls the bandana off my eyes, his fingers tickle me as I feel them brush my hair, and wraps his arms around my waist. My eyes adjust to the dim lighting and see the most beautiful setting infront of me. We're at the beach. There's a single table set up with matching chairs. Around it are candles and rose pedals scattered all over the sand, with a couple of rose petals on the table. There's a path of candles leading to the table where two dishes sit with a single rose in the middle.

"Do you like it?" He asks snuggling into my neck and kissing it from behind. I turn around to look at him and jump into his arms. I kiss him and he wraps his arms around my waist.

"YES! It's beautiful!" I say, shocked at the immense effort put into this one date. "I only wish I would've known we were going to be outside. I forgot to bring a sweater." I shiver, folding my arms over my chest, hoping that they would keep me warm from the ocean breeze.

"I thought you might say that." He says as he runs to the car and grabs a basket.

"What's that?"

"It's everything we're going to need for tonight." He grabs my hand and walks me to the table.

He pulls out my chair and I sit. He places the basket in between the both of us and opens it up. I start to smile as he pulls each item out of the basket explaining them to me.

"Pasta, pasta sauce, and bread for dinner." he says placing the foods aside.

"A variety of drinks for my special girl. Champagne, lemonade, water." I smile at him and he smiles back giving me a wink. What was he going on about?

"Cards to play with for after dinner, a portable CD player for musical entertainment, and a blanket to lay down on the sand." He really thought this through. "But wait. My fair lady is still cold is she not?" I giggle at him for calling me his fair lady and nod.

At the very bottom of the basket he pulls out a sweater. At first it didn't phase me, it was just a sweater. Until I somehow remebered that it was not just a sweater. Well, it was, but it meant something more. It's the sweater he wore the day I met him. I wonder how I could possibly remember such a thing, but somehow I did.

"Is that the sweater you were wearing when we first met?" I ask him.

He gets up and hands it to me, helping me pull it over the top of my dress. It always looked as if it fit him just right, but on me it looked giant and the sleeves hung down over my hands.

"Yup." He says.

And then I realize that it's not just the sweater. It was everything. The pasta was what we ate on our first date. Cards was the first thing that we ever played together. I take a look at the CD options but there's only one. It's his album. The album they sung at the show. I look up at him and I smile brihgtly, earing a smile back.

"Do you get it?" he asks reaching over and grabbing my hands.

"I love you." Is all I can manage to tell him. He leans over the table and gives me a kiss.

"Well then, you must've worked up an appetite shopping. Especially since you went with Luke, I know he can be a handful. So let's eat!" He says jokingly.

I hesitate to answer. I knew I shouldn't be worried about Luke because I was having the most amazing night with my one and only, but I knew there was something up with him and I was worried.

"That's true, I'm starving. This all looks so delicious Ash!" He serves me some pasta onto my plate and then onto his own. "Did you make the food?" I ask him. Ashton was definitely the best cook out of the 4 boys, but that didn't mean he was great at it.

"With a little bit of help, yes I did."

"You needed help cooking pasta?" I laugh. How hard could it be? All you have to do is put noodles in boiling water.

"Hey, I wanted to give you a nice meal not poison you!" We both laugh and smile.

It was a quiet night and his laughter sounded so perfect against the sounds of the ocean. Almost as if they were harmonizing together. His hazel eyes lit up under the moonlight as if they were a couple of stars and his curls swayed lightly from the breeze. He looked so perfect.

"Do you want to listen to music?" he asks, already in the middle of putting the CD into the player.

"Of course." I tell him, I'm not one to turn down good music.

"I love this album! How did you know!?" I say sarcastically, as the familiar "hey" begins to radiate through the speakers.

"I knew because I remember this one time you went to their concert and you were jamming out to it. Not to mention it seemed like you had the hots for one of the band members." He winks at me.

I feel myself blush and he notices and smiles.

"You noticed?" I ask. He just looks up at me.

"It's hard not to notice such a perfect girl. It's a good thing I noticed too before he did." I give a strange look but I manage a smile. I forgot about that. "Now I'm sitting here. Eating pasta that I may or may not have cooked. Listening to music that I may or may not have written. With a girl I absolutely love."

He gets up, comes behind me, and wraps his arms around me giving me a kiss on the cheek and whispers in my ear. "A girl I will absolutely love forever."

I turn around to get in a more comfortable position and kiss him. He pulls the chair out from the table and I make an 'oh' sound while his lips are still on mine. He pulls me closer and I lean into him, causing the both of us to lose balance. I fall off the chair and on top of him in the soft sand. We both start laughing uncontrolably. I hit his chest lightly while staying on top of him.

"Well, who needs a blanket when you've got a boyfriend who's much softer." I say after we've both calmed down a bit. He puts one hand to his chest and scoffs.

"Are you calling me fat?" He says taking fake offense to my comment.

"No! Well..." He flips me over so that he's on top of me now. His body is heavy but light at the same time.

"Ugh! No! It's so sandy! Ashton!" I whine.

"See. It's not fun is it? Being rolled around in the sand!" I pout and he just smiles down at me. "Payback." He kisses me on the nose and I scrunch up my face. He gets up and gives me a hand to help me get out of the the sand. His hands were soft but I could feel they were corse from his drumming. He lays out the blanket and we both lie down on it. His arm wrapped around me and my head and hand resting on his chest, listening to his steady breathing. It's silent for a couple of minutes. We were both just enjoying each other's company, looking at the stars and listening to the sound of the waves crashing on the shore. Then the conversation I had with Luke earlier, about Ashton and the boundaries, pops into my head.

"You know I'd never leave you for one of the other guys, right?" His breath hitches.

"Yeah, of course." He says half-heartedly and I see his lips flick downwards as he begins to play with his long fingers. I sit up and look at him.

"Ash, look at me," he gets up on his elbows. "I would NEVER leave you. You are mine and I am yours and I love you so freaking much. I don't want you doubting my feelings toward you." He's silent for a moment, contemplating my words. "Look, Luke told me today that you're worried that the other guys are going to take me away from you but-"

"You shouldn't listen to him, he doesn't know what he's saying." He says stubbornly.

"He's your best friend! If any one knows better than me it's him!"

"Oh so you're on his side now?" He gets up into a full sitting position. I scoff. Why was he getting so angry all of a sudden?

Then I realize that Ashton has been acting extra mushy since I told him I was out with Luke. "What's wrong with you? Ever since I went shopping with him you've been acting all weird! In fact, you've both been acting weird! What's going on between you two?!"

He grabs my face and kisses me roughly. I don't kiss back, I knew he was doing it to get me to stop talking. I'm mad now. What the hell was he hiding? They were up to something and it was clearly bothering him.

I push away from him. "No! This isn't something you can just kiss and make it go away! What are you not telling me?!"

He gets up, clearly frustrated. He brushes his hands through his hair and paces back and forth on the beach. "ASHTON! What is it? Tell me! I want to help!"

He stops dead in his path and looks me straight in the eye. "LUKE LIKES YOU, OK?!" He turns around and walks to the water kicking at the wet sand.

Luke likes me. Shit. That explains why he was so weird today. But I don't understand why Ashton was making such a fuss about this. I loved him, not Luke. I mean I lost my fucking virginity to that boy! Does that mean nothing to him? I've never trusted anyone as much as I trust him. He knows more about me than me own parents!

Then it hits me, I understand. This couldn't have just come up. This had to be brewing for some time. Finding out Luke liked me must have pushed him over the edge.

With a new understanding I walk to the shore where he's standing, his feet sinking a little into the wet sand. "Why didn't you tell me?" He flinches a little and glances in my direction and returns his stare to the horizon.

"Isn't it kind of obvious?"

"No, not about Luke," he scrunches his face at his name.

"I meant about you. Why didn't you tell me you were feeling insecure?" His face softens and he turns to me.

I pull him into a hug. He wraps his arms around my back and squeezes me tighter. I hear a little sniff and grab his face between my hands.

"You can tell me." I say as he puts his hands in mine and pulls them down in between the two of us.

"It's been going on for ages and it never really bothered me, but now that I have you I guess it's getting to me." He looks down at my hands and strokes his thumb over them. "People keep saying that Luke's better and that the band would be better without me." I kiss his hands and he smiles a little. "The one thing that got to me the other day was that someone wrote to me that you'd be better off with Luke than with me. They said that I didn't deserve you and when Luke told me that he liked you it just pushed me over the edge."

He looks back at me. "I can't lose you." He breaths in. "People can call me stupid, useless, ugly, untalented, but the one thing they can't do is take you away from me." The tears I had been holding back start to flow down my face and he pulls me in for another hug and he kisses me. It's stupid. I came he to comfort him and he ends up comforting me. It just breaks my heart when people say those things about him. He's such a sweet, beautiful and talented human being. Fucking haters.

He kisses me gently but firmly and keeps his hands on my cheeks as he wipes away my tears with his thumbs.

"I love you," I sniff, "more than you know."

He lifts my chin to look into his eyes and he smiles. "Trust me, I know." He kisses me once more, shortly, and grabs my hand. We both walk down the shore, hand in hand, quietly. I rest my head against his shoulder and he kisses my head. "I know."

We both walk silently, listening to the ocean and the sound of each others heart beats, across the wet sand for a while. Usually I felt uncomfortable with silence but this silence was calming and soothing. I still had tons of thoughts and feelings swirling around in my mind about everything I just learned, but this silence was nice. Ashton turns around to look at where we were walking from and notices that our table is out of site. "We should turn around." He says quietly.

I nod as we both turn around, his arms still wrapped around me, walking in the direction we came. The calming silence continues until it starts to freak me out so I decide to speak up. "Why are you being so quiet?" I ask.

"I'm just thinking." He says. That wasn't a reassuring answer but it was something.

"This night was perfect Ash." I say reassuringly as I look up at him. Well, excluding the whole Luke issue. He smiles.

"Good. That was the plan." He says giggling. We both finally make it back to the table and decide to pack up. It was getting late and Ashton has a long day tomorrow.

"We never got to play cards." I say pouting. I remember the night when we played cards for the first time. It was a simple game but Ashton made it unforgettable.

"We'll play when we get home. I promise." He says grabbing my hand and kissing my cheek.

I was starting to burn up since I completely forgot about his sweater, so I take it off and hand it back to him. "What are you doing?" he asks confused.

"This is your sweater. I don't need it anymore. I'm all warm." I say grinning at him.

"Keep it."

"What?"

"Keep it. I want you to have it. So I can be close to you whenever you need me." He says walking towards the car. Wow, that was cheesy. I smile and stand there for a while taking in the last moments of the night and then jog to the car where he's already waiting. He starts the engine and we are off.

I look out the window and watch the ocean become smaller and smaller. I suddenly hear my phone buzz in my purse. It buzzes again. And again. And again. This is odd. No one calls me but Ashton and he's right beside me so I know it's not him. I look down to see what was going on when I see I have three missed calls from Luke. "Shit." I whisper to myself. What does he want?


	5. Chapter 5

"What's wrong babe? You look flustered." He asks, glancing in my direction. "Babe?"

"Hmmm? What?"

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah. I umm..." I look down at my phone. I am going to kill Luke when I get home. "I'm great. I'm fine." I reply, trying to conceal my lie. Ashton just nods and focuses back on his driving.

After a couple of silent minutes, he takes one of his hands off of the steering wheel and places it on my leg. "Sooo... I know you're still new to this but umm, instead of playing cards maybe we could do something else." He winks at me.

"Seriously?" I ask, a little in shock that he's so eager to go at it again.

"No, I'm just messing around." He giggles. I don't, I'm not really in the mood. "I'm sorry." He says guiltily, letting go of my leg.

"No it's fine. I'm just tired is all. And I was really looking forward to cards." I laugh half-heartedly, since I'm still a little distracted.

He just smiles and nods. "Cards it is then." After 20 minutes or so, we pull up to the house. He drops me off in the front so that he can go park the car in the back. I get out of the car and grab my purse as I watch him drive towards the garage. Once I'm sure he can't see me, I barge in through the front door and see Luke sitting on the couch.

"What the hell is wrong with you!" I shout.

Startled, he turns around to look at me. "What?" he says surprised.

"Are you fucking nuts!? Why the hell do you think it would be okay to go dress shopping with me!" I shout. I admit I wasn't making much sense but I was pretty confused at the moment.

"What? You said you were bored and I was bored too. I wanted to get out of the house!" He yells.

"Don't give me that bullshit Luke."

He pauses for a moment. "I'm assuming the date didn't go well?"

"No. You'll be unhappy to hear that it actually went just fine." Except for that whole slip up half way through but he doesn't have to know about that. "In fact it was amazing. He's amazing and I love him. Do you understand what that means Luke?!" All of these things were coming out of my mouth so fast, I wasn't even thinking about what I was saying.

"I don't even know what the hell you're talking about!" He defends himself.

"Yes you do! He's your best friend. What's the matter with you!" Before I can say anything else Ashton walks into the house, totally unaware of the yelling and the shouting that had been going on seconds before. Luke's face goes white. "Hey Luke. What are you doing up?" Ashton asks.

"I was just watching TV. I couldn't sleep. But Dani said you guys had an amazing night." Luke says.

"She just said amazing? I would say perfect." Ash says, giving me a peck on the cheek. I blush and smile. He always finds a way to make me happy, even when I'm down, even when he doesn't realize it.

"Well I'm gonna head to bed then." Luke says staring at me, his face sunken in and his eyes glazed with confused sadness. He walks upstairs as I wait for the sound of his bedroom door closing. Ashton turns to me and smiles. "Sooo...cards!?" He walks to the dresser in the living room and pulls out a deck. "Cards." I smile as he guides me to the couch.

We sit down across from one another as he shuffles the cards. I'm still furious at Luke and I keep getting distracted. "So what are we playing my love?" I snap out of my dazed anger and focus back on my boyfriend.

"Anything's fine."

"How about strip poker?" He raises one eyebrow and gives me a teasing look as he pretends to slowly unbutton his shirt. I glare at him and he laughs "I'm just kidding babe, go fish?" I smile a little. God this boy.

"Sure." He deals out the cards and we start to play. After about 15 minutes I have 3 cards left and need to get rid of them. "Got any 7s?" I ask him with my cards in front of my face.

"Maybe..." He replies. I reach out my hand and snap my fingers.

"Hand them over!"

"No! They're my sevens!" He gets up and starts running around the room with his card in his hand.

"Hey! That card is meant for me!" I scream and run after him. I chase him a little and have him cornered in the kitchen. All of a sudden he turns off the lights. I fumble around for the switch and see his feet disappear up the stairs. Oh it's on. I run after him, almost tripping on the stairs. I watch him run into his room and know that there's no way he's getting out of there, so I follow him. When I open the door he's sprawled across the bed with the card clenched in between his teeth. That cheeky son of a bitch.

I lean against the door frame and laugh a little. "Wow, real smooth." He chuckles and takes the card out of his mouth.

"If you want the card you're going to have to take it from me." He puts the card back in his mouth and I roll my eyes. Sometimes I feel like I'm dating a 7 year old.

"Fine." I walk over to the bed and reach for the card.

"Na-uh" he mumbles. He takes his fingers and points to his lips. "Wih your teeh." He manages to say with the card still in his mouth. I smile and shake my head at the stupid request but hey, why not? I'm a 7 year old at heart. I climb onto the bed as seductively as I can but at the same time, I'm trying to making a huge joke about it. He starts laughing which makes it hard to keep a straight face but I manage. I lean forward to grab the card with my teeth and he quickly takes the card out of his mouth and puts his hand on the back of my head, pulling me in for a kiss. Duh. Man, this boy sure does go through a lot of trouble just to get a kiss.

His other hand goes to my back and pushes me down on top of him. I smile into the kiss when I think about his lame attempt at seduction. He smiles as well and I roll over next to him without my lips leaving his. We continue kissing and he moves his hand to the small of my back. I lift my leg and wrap it around his legs.

I finally pull away, breathing heavily. "You're such a dork." I say. He kisses me again causing me to laugh a little.

"Why thank you M'lady" he says, re-using the nickname from the date earlier today. I yawn a little and look at the time, it's 2 in the morning. It can't possibly be that late, can it?

I look back at him. "Is someone tired?" He asks.

I yawn again and nod. "Maybe just a little" I close my eyes and lean against him. He's quiet for a while. All I can hear is his breathing.

Right before I fall asleep he shifts under me. "Dani, you can't sleep in that dress." He whispers into my ear.

"Mmmm." I moan grumpily. Yes I can. Ugh.

"C'mon." He places his hands on my waist and leans me up so he can unzip my dress. At this point I'm too tired to really care. He helps me out of my dress and gives me one of his shirts to slip over. I lie back down on his bed while he gets out of his clothes. He crawls back into bed with just his boxers and pulls me close. I turn around so that my back is against his chest. His arm wraps around my waist as he kisses my head. "Goodnight babe, I love you."

Ignoring the rough moment at the beach, tonight was perfect. Although, I know I'll have to do something about this Luke issue. "Goodnight, love you too." I say in a voice so quiet I'm surprised he even reacted to the sound. He kisses the back of my head again and strokes my stomach through the shirt.

He fell asleep soon after that but I couldn't manage to follow his lead, no matter how exhausted I was. I need to sort this out, now.

I stayed in bed, awake, for a few more minutes just to make sure Ashton was really sleeping. Before I get out of bed I turn to look at him. I smile at his relaxed face and run my fingers through his hair. I hate seeing him hurt, even just a little bit. When he said all those things on the beach, I had never felt angrier in my entire life. But I know that if I was happy he was happy so I don't want him to find out that I'm still worried about him.

I slowly release myself from his grasp and walk out the room, slowly closing the door behind me. I wonder if Luke's even awake but it doesn't really matter, I need to talk to him. I realize now that yelling at him isn't the best solution at the moment, but I couldn't help myself. I walk down the hallway until I reach his room. There aren't any lights shining through the bottom of the door, but I knock anyway.

"Luke." I say quietly. I hear him rustle around but the door stays closed. "Luke, please let me in." I plead with him. I hear the sound of footsteps inconsistently moving around the room until finally it stops.

"What do you want?" he says harshly through the door.

"I need to talk to you."

"Why?"

"Because. Just let me in Luke." He doesn't reply. He then opens the door and walks back to his bed and sits down.

"Are you here to yell at me for no reason again?" He scolds.

"No, I'm not going to yell at you right now. I'm done yelling. But I did have a reason." I say.

"And what could that reason possibly be then?" he asks. Ok, now he's just playing dumb. I walk over to sit next to him. I hesitate at first, but I don't want to talk down to him. I sit down on the bed, still keeping my distance.

"Ashton told me what's been going on between you two." I start. Luke doesn't say anything back, he only stares down at his feet.

"Oh." Is all he can say.

"Why would you go shopping with me if you knew what people were saying about Ashton? What would've happened if people saw us at that shop? You know how quick the paps are to jump to conclusions. Imagine the hysteria and the things people would say about him then." I pause, getting a little frustrated now that I'm saying this all out loud. "And the fact that you didn't even think of that. You took advantage of the fact that I didn't know any of this. Ashton was questioning if I loved him tonight. Do you know how that makes me feel? To think that the one person you love doesn't think you love them back? Doesn't realize it? Doesn't believe it." My voice started getting a bit louder. "No, you don't Luke because you've never been in-"

"Yes I do. I know it every time I see you two together! I mean you guys are all OVER each other! You guys just can't keep your hands off each other and I hate it! I see you with him and I know he's my best friend, my brother, but I want to hate him. I want to hate you. Because hating the both of you would be way fucking easier than this. If I hated you we wouldn't be having this conversation. If I hated him I wouldn't feel so goddamn awful about loving you." He chokes on his last words.

I sit there for a moment trying to take in what he just said. He stands up from the bed and runs his hands through his hair. I don't move. I don't say anything. I can't. But I have to. I do the first and only thing that comes into my head. I say the only thing that I can.

"Well you need to get over a girl that can't even stand to be near you." I say angrily. He turns to look at me, his eyes piercing through me. "I hate you." I spit with all the anger in my gut. Before he has the chance to say anything I run out of his room and slam the door behind me. I can hear him groan in anger. Ignoring his frustration, I walk down the hallway and fall to the floor, the tears rushing down my cheeks.

"Shit shit shit shit." I mumble to myself as the tears blur my vision. He loves me!? You've got to be fucking kidding me! Of course I didn't mean what I said to him but I had to try and push him away, after all I'm going to have to get along with him on tour and the best way to do that is to make sure that he doesn't like me anymore. Wait, tour. Shit! He's coming on tour! How the hell is this going to work? Why the hell would he tell me that he loves me!? He knows Ash and I are going strong and he knows we love each other! Why can't he just accept it and move on?! Oh god. This is a nightmare. Ashton can't find out. If he does he'll get pissed and insecure and who knows? He might even start believing those stupid haters. No no no no. Fuck.

I can hear frustrated noises coming from Luke's room: pillows being thrown at the wall and stomping around. You know what, let him be upset. He ruined this. I've only been back in their lives for 2 days and he's already screwing it up. I try to compose myself a little and go into the bathroom to wipe my eyes. They're puffy and red but I'm not crying anymore. No, now I'm just confused. Of course I'd never leave Ashton for Luke but what will this mean for our relationship. After all, Ashton's extra sensitive when it comes to Luke because of the fact that I had a huge crush on him before I started dating him.

I take a couple of breaths and finally walk out the bathroom into the hall. Right as I walk out of the bathroom, Luke walks out of his room, which, of course, happens to be right across from the bathroom. We look at each other for a moment. His eyes are red and puffy, just like mine. He looks disappointed and angry and sad. I look down at his hands and notice car keys in between his fingers.

He breaks his statue-like state and walks toward the stairs. I catch him by his arm trying to hold him back for a second. "Where are you going?" I ask him, worried. I don't want him to leave.

He sniffs and wipes a stray tear from his eye. "Why would you care?" He then yanks his arm out of my grasp before I can answer him. A couple seconds later, the front door slams shut as I'm left stranded at the top of the stairs. "Shit"

I'm sure the loud slam must've woken someone up but it didn't. Man, they must've had pretty long days if they can sleep through that. I don't know what to do. I rush down the stairs and grab my purse. Ash and I left cards flung everywhere so I have to shove them around to find it. I finally do after digging for a while, and take my phone out. It still says that I have 3 missed calls from Luke. I forgot to ask him about those, but I will eventually. That's not the priority right now. I can't be mad at him when I call him, well I have to pretend not to be, otherwise he won't come back. Right now I have to be afraid for him. Where the hell is he going in a city like this at 3 in the morning?

I try to dial his number while my hands are shaking. Lets just say its pretty difficult. The phone rings.

No answer.

"Are you fucking kidding me Luke?" I mumble under my breath, a little exasperated. I keep calling and calling until he finally picks up. "Thank god!" I say, relieved.

"Thank god what? That I answered the damn phone?" Luke says his voice harsh.

"Yes! I was worried about you. Come home!" I quietly shout at him through the phone.

"You have made it pretty clear that you need your distance from me. So no thank you, I won't be coming home tonight."

"Luke, don't be ridiculous! Where are you even going to stay?"

"Why the hell would you care where I stay? You hate me, remember?" He says softly, to soft, an angry type of soft. Before I can say anything he hangs up on me. Fucking jerk. He can go sleep in a hotel room alone if he wants to. I'm not the one who fell in love with my best friends girlfriend. I shiver. Right, that's me. I'm the cause of this. Ugh. I slam the phone down on the table and walk back up the stairs back into Ashton's room.

He's still asleep, thank goodness. I crawl softly into the bed and face him. I run my hands through his hair and lean in to kiss him. "I love you. I love you so so much." I whisper even though I know he can't hear me. I just sigh and tuck my head into his shoulder while restlessly trying to fall asleep.


	6. Chapter 6

***The next morning***

I open my eyes to see that Ash has already gotten out of bed. I lay there for a while, thinking about everything that happened last night. It felt like ages ago.

While mapping out the night I suddenly remember Luke. Shit! I throw the covers off my body and jolt out of the bedroom after throwing on a pair of sweatpants I found on the floor. I stand at the top of the stairs, ready to run down and tell the other guys, but hear them talking in hushed tones.

"Where is he?" one of the boys asks, I think Calum.

"I don't know. I heard a slam last night but I didn't think anything of it. I thought maybe you and Dani were still awake." Michael says.

"No, buy 2 am we were both asleep." Ashton answers. I cringe a bit. That was a lie, he just didn't know it. I want to tell the boys that Luke ran out. That he left. But I couldn't without Ashton wondering why I was talking to him last night.

"Well we have to go find him." Calum states, as if it were obvious.

"No, it's fine. He's a big boy he'll come home." Ash says as he looks up at me at the top of the stairs with a saddened look in his eyes. Why is he looking at me like that? Oh god. He knows something.

"Ashton are you kidding me!? We can't just leave h-"

"Yes we can. I'm sure he's fine. If he's smart he'll come home soon." Ashton says, ending the conversation. He then looks back at me and starts walking up the stairs. If Luke was smart then none of this would've happened. "Morning babe." Ash says, giving me a half smile.

I have to say it. I have to tell him. "Ashton, I know where-"

"I know." He says walking past me and into the bedroom. Great. I follow him.

"You heard us?" I ask him, unsure what he was thinking at the moment.

"I heard you get out of bed. And then I heard mumbling coming from his room. And the door slam. And then..." He stops. Did he hear me saying that I love him?

"Did you hear what we were saying?" I ask. I hope to god he didn't.

"Does it matter what you were saying?" he says upset. Shit.

"Yes, it does."

"Why? Why were you even talking to him. Why would you sneak out of bed to go talk to that guy?"

"'That guy', is your best friend. And I had to clear things up with him."

"Sure." He says, not believing me. "Why would he leave the house after you guys just 'cleared things up'?"

"What are you saying!?" I shout. Does he seriously think I'd betray him like that?

"I'm saying that if I was guilty I'd leave the damn house too!"

"What!" He thinks I fucking slept with Luke?! It's been like 2 days since I even had sex for the first time. Does he think so lowly of me? That I'd just jump to the next guy I see?! "No! Did you not hear me last night? When I came in."

"I did. I heard you." Ok, good. "You were saying those things to be reassuring!" Sweet fucking jesus.

"No I meant them!"

"Why would anybody say those fucking words to me and mean them?!" Oh no. "No one ever means those words to me!" Tears threaten to fall down his face as he rushes out the door.

"Fuck!" I mumble under my breath. "Ashton, wait!" I yell and follow him outside. Normally it would be bright outside but the clouds are covering the sky. How cheery. I grab his arm, causing him to turn around.

"Don't fucking touch me right now!" He says pulling his arm away from me. He reacted to my touch as if it was burning his skin. He puts both hands in his hair and makes a frustrated noise. "I thought we talked about this!" He shouts at me.

"We did! Ok!" He turns around and takes a few steps away from me. "Ashton do you have any idea what it's like to have the one person you love not believe you?!" He make an exasperated sound and rolls his eyes. "I love you! I have given my entire heart, body and soul to this relationship. Hell, I've given you EVERYTHING! Yet you still don't believe that I love you. I LOVE YOU! I'll say it a million times until you believe me! I love you. I love you, I love y-"

"Stop!" He puts out his hands, hoping to make me stop with my useless rant. "Just explain to me what the hell you two were doing last night!" His voice cracks at the end of his sentence. I can see the betrayal in his eyes. I take a step closer to him and he crosses his arms.

"I had to talk to him." I have to tell him. I have I tell him everything. I sigh. "Remember in the car on the way home from our date?" He looks at me and nods his head before looking back to the floor. "When I checked my phone I had 3 missed calls from Luke."

"Why did he call you?"

"That's what I've been trying to figure out. When we got home I was pissed because he took advantage of the fact that I didn't know he lo-liked me."

He looks up at my stumble of words. Shit. "Loved you? He loves you!?" Shit.

"No! I just fumbled my words, no!"

"Dani don't lie to me!" Shit. He stopped pacing and was looking me dead in the eye.

"He told me last night." I say quietly, looking at my feet.

"That dick! I'm going to fucking kill him!" He shouts at the air.

"He's your best friend you can't say that! He left last night because I didn't want him to ruin our relationship."

"What?" He looks at me with wild eyes. He's processing a lot of new information right now.

"I told him," I pause and sigh. "I told him that I hated him."

His eyes widen. "You what?!" He seems to have momentarily forgotten his anger towards Luke.

"I know I was selfish! I'm sorry!" Tears start to fill my eyes but I try to hold them back. "Look, I've just messed this whole thing up. I don't want to be the reason the band breaks up. Maybe it's just best I don't go on tour with you guys." I sniff and turn around. 'Maybe it's best we broke up' I think to myself. I immediately push that thought aside. I couldn't imagine doing that, especially now.

I stride into the house and see Calum and Michael looking at my tear streaked face. "Where are the car keys?" I ask them. They've both probably heard the entire argument and don't really know what to do. Michael points shyly to a drawer in the kitchen. Calum hits him on the shoulder as I quickly pull them out and head out of the house.

Ashton's still standing in the front of the house. He looks at me and sees the keys in my hand. He leaps into action the second he realizes what I'm doing. I don't need this right now.

"Where are you going? Dani! Stop!" He grabs my arm in attempts to stop me. I just pull away from him and get into the car. I start the engine and ignore the knocking on the passenger seat window. "Dani! Stop! Stay! Please!" I simply press the gas and leave through the front gate. I have to find Luke and fix this, fast.

I'm driving in silence after I turned off the radio. I need to think. Where could he be? The clouds finally give way and it starts to rain lightly. Wow, perfect weather for how I'm feeling right now. Normally I love when it rains. I would stay inside and cuddle with Ashton. He would kiss me and play with my hair...

Ugh! Stop thinking about him! I need to focus! See, this is what he does to me! He can make any bad situation good. But right now I need to focus. Where could Luke be. I can't count on any of the other guys finding him, after all he took the other car, so they don't have any way of following me, or Luke. Especially Ashton.

I drive around the city, hopelessly looking out of the car window. I stop at a random park that seems to be barren, thanks to the rain, plus it's getting a little cold. I pull my sweater over my hands and realize it's the same sweater Ashton gave to me last night. Ugh. I haven't even changed from what I slept in last night. Thank god I put on long pants earlier, I would have frozen by now.

I need to fix this. I can't imagine a world without Ash, he's my everything.

I walk a little farther into the park and call out his name "Luke! Are you here?!" Nothing.

I'm about to give up when I see a little strand of hair sticking out from behind a tree. "Luke! Is that you?!" I walk around and see a tired, blonde-headed boy, soaked, leaning against the tree with tears in his eyes. "Oh my god." I whisper and cover my mouth with my hands. I wasn't expecting him to be in this bad shape.

I fall down to my knees next to him and hug him. He sniffs and hugs me back. "I'm so sorry Luke. I don't hate you. I never did and I never will." He pulls away and looks back down at the ground.

He pulls his knees up to his chin and sighs. "It's hard. It's so freaking hard. I've tried for months to get over you. I can't. It just doesn't go away. And seeing you all happy and giggly and," he pauses, "in love with Ashton," silence. "it kills me. Every time he hugs you. Every time you kiss. Hell, every time you touch I wish that was me, not him." I look at him. I feel horrible. I did this, I'm making him feel this way.

"I'm so s-"

"No. Don't apologize. You've apologized enough. It's my fault we're in this mess. It's my fault. I'm sorry." We sit there for a moment. Both of us, side by side, in complete silence. "How's Ashton? Does he know you're here?"

I look down. "I don't know what's going on between the two of us."

"What do you mean?" He seems quite alarmed by my answer.

"I don't know. He just seems pretty pissed at me. He heard us last night and I don't think he's very happy with me right now. I don't think it's the best idea I come on tour with you guys." I admit. I don't want to ruin anything else.

"Woah woah woah woah. Stop right there. That boy could never be mad at you. He's just confused and afraid."

"Afraid? That I'm going to leave him?" I 'll never happy.

"Yes." Oh. "And you need to get home and tell him that you won't, and that you never will." He gets up and holds his hand out to me.

"That's not going to work. I've told him a million ti-"

"I know you've told him. But that's not enough, you need to make him believe you."

I sigh and take his hand. He helps me up and we walk to our cars, which were parked surprisingly close together. I can't believe I didn't see his car earlier.

I break the silence as I stand by my car.

"How do you do this?" I ask him

"Hmm?"

"How do you love someone and help them fix their relationship with someone else. How do you do it?"

"I guess, when you love someone, you've got to let them go." He turns around and goes to his car as I get into mine. God I feel so guilty. Luke deserves better. He always has.

I drive home and arrive before he does.


	7. Chapter 7

Its not long until he pulls up behind me. We both get out the car and walk up to each other. "So what's your plan?" Luke asks.

"Plan? I haven't thought of a plan."

"You can't go in there without a plan."

"Well I'm going to."

"Alright then." He gives me a cheeky smile, but behind it I could tell he was sad, and follows me into the house.

"Thank goodness you guys are okay!" Calum shouts as he runs up and hugs us. I push him off lightly. I didn't want to hug or comfort anyone but Ash right now.

"Wheres Ashton?" I ask. Calum doesn't say anything.

"Just tell us Cal" Luke says sternly.

"Upstairs." We both run up and we rush into the bedroom door. Ashton turns around and his worried face manages a smile as he runs up and holds me tight.

"I was so worried about you!" he cries. I hold him tightly soaking in his warmth.

Suddenly though, he lets go of me and shoves Luke, knocking him to the floor and causing him to hit his head against the wall.

"Ashton! Stop!" I yell. "Please. He didn't do anything wrong I swear. I love you. You have to believe me" I plea. I look at him and he's breathing heavily. His hands are clenched into fists. I look down at Luke to receive a reassuring nod.

"I need to tell you something." I say softly and Ashton turns around and looks at me.

"Tell me what?" Ashton snaps still looking down at Luke. I say nothing. I can feel tears coming on. My legs start to shake and my breathing becomes heavy, was I really going to tell him? Ashton notices my uneasiness and my tears and he places his hands on my shoulders. He pushes my hair, still wet from the rain, behind my ear. "Dani look you don't have to tell me anything-"

"Yes I do." I say, my voice shaking. "I have to tell you. So you'll believe me." I pause before I start again. "Before you Ashton..." my voice chokes on my words. "Before you I was different. I...I wasn't the same. There are things I've never told anyone...It's just... all I know is you make me forget those things and...I can't...I don't want to be without you again. Everything is dark without you...I'm lost without you...Ash I just I lov-" Ashton cuts me off by pulling me in. I feel his chest crash into mine and take my arms and wrap them around him.

"Dan stop. I believe you. I believe you. I don't know why I questioned it. I'm sorry. I love you." Ashton whispers into my ears as he rubs his hand up and down my back to soothe my shaking. I lean my head against his chest and he kisses my head. My back is facing Luke but I can feel him looking at me. I pull away but Ashton keeps his arm wrapped around my waist.

"Are you ok?" Ashton asks Luke. Awkward. He was watching that whole thing.

"Yeah."

Ashton is still clearly not 100% sure how to feel towards him. Of course he's still processing the whole 'I'm in love with your girlfriend' thing, but he's coming to terms with it... I think.

"You don't have to worry about me. I'm not going to mess anything up, not again at least." Luke says

"Yeah you better not" Ash replies and I hit him in the chest, glaring at him. He rolls his eyes. "I'm sorry about shoving you. The truth is, you're still one of my best friends and nothing, not including my girlfriend, will change that." Luke smiles at him and looks at me again. I smile and he returns it but I can see the pain in his eyes. I snap out of it and so does he.

"So, I'm assuming this means you're still coming on tour with us, right?" Ash says. I'm still unsure but he pulls me to him with both hands on my waist and looks me in the eyes.

"Because I know I'll be much happier with you there and the guys will love having a girl around."

"That's true" Luke says as he stands up from the wall.

"Don't push it." Ashton warns gritting his teeth together. "Just think about the cuddles, the kisses," Ash says and then he leans into my ear and whispers the next part, "the sex" he cheekily grins at me.

"And that's my cue to leave." Luke nervously laughs before leaving the room. He glances back at me one more time and looks down at his feet before he closes the door. I look back up at Ashton and stare into his eyes.

"So. What do you say?" I give him a fake contemplating look, just to tease him. He chuckles under his breath. "I mean, if you're still not convinced I can give you a little taste of what we'll be doing on tour if you come with me." He says and moves his hands to my bum, leaning in for a kiss.

No!" I hit him on the chest playfully. "I'll go" I say and he smiles. He picks me up and kisses me.

"Thank god! I don't think I can handle another week without you." I giggle and shake my head before I kiss him again.

"Shit." I say suddenly.

"What?" He says shocked.

"I'm soaking wet! I got the floor all wet and everything!" I say as I sneeze. All this commotion has made me forget that I'm actually freezing. I look up to see he's not infront of me anymore. I hear a rustling behind me in the closet.

"Ash what are you doing?" I giggle looking at him. He looks up at me with a sweater and a pair of his sweatpants in hand.

"I dont want my girl being sick and cold." He says smiling as he hands me some clothes. I blush and smile. I don't wait for him to go or turn around I just strip. I stand there wearing nothing but my undergarments and he smiles at me. He puts his hands on my shoulders and slowly moves them down to my collar bones, to my chest, to my stomach wiping away the drops of water as he goes along. His hands feel warm and I can feel my frozen skin begin to thaw. I grab his hands before he gets down any further and I pull him close to me. He smiles and I smile and I start to feel like everything was going to be okay again. He moves my chin up with his fingers and kisses me. We kiss for a while, making our way towards the bed. We both sit but he keeps his lips attatched to mine. He puts his hands on my legs and starts to move them up and I grab his shirt with my hands, feeling his chest.

He pulls away and smiles, "You wanna get into this now? With other people in the house?" he says and I giggle.

"Oh so now you're the one telling me to stop." He blushes and laughs. I get up from the bed and put the clothes he gave me on and tie up my hair. "Its raining so what should we do?" I ask.

"Really it's raining I wouldn't of guessed" He says sarcastically. What a comedian. "Movie?"

"Movie."

We walk down the stairs hand in hand and ask the other guys if they want to watch a movie with us. They agree, except for Luke, who excuses himself to his room. I hope it won't be like this forever, I felt bad for him, he was still my friend. We all sat in the living room. Ashton and I sat on the couch. He was sitting with his feet up and I was resting my head on his lap.

"What are we watching?" Michael asks.

Ashton looks down at me and shrugs. "I don't know, what do you want to watch?"

"Anything's fine." I smile at him.

"Can we watch Forrest Gump? I haven't seen that one in ages." Michael replies.

"Sure."

Calum gets up and shuffles through the folder holding all the moives until he finds the disc and puts the DVD in. He turns off the lights and the film starts. I can still hear the light pitter-patter from the rain outside, but I feel warm, safe. I close my eyes and pull my knees to my chin snuggling up against Ash. He rests his hand on my back and draws small circles into it.

Half way through the film we both get distracted and he starts playing with my fingers. He entwines my fingers with his and kisses my hand. I lean my head back an look at him. I smile as he leans down and kisses me. I smile because of the awkward angle and earn a "shhh" from Cal. This only makes me giggle more.

"Sweet JESUS we're trying to watch a film here! You guys can either watch it or go makeout someone where else!" Michael shouts, clearly a bit agitated at our constant noises.

"So you don't want us to do what exactly?" Ashton asks, messing with him.

"Stop kissing so much." He says. Here it comes.

"You mean this?" Ashton says and kisses me, hard. I hear the other two boys make an 'ugh' sound and I smile into his kiss. It's fun messing with them. I'm just glad Luke isn't here. I don't want to be rubbing this in his face, it's still kind of new. He removes his lips from mine momentarily and lies down on the couch, I follow his lead and lie down kind of next to him, leaning on his chest. I look up at him again and peck his lips.

He smiles at me. "I love you."

"I love you too." He kisses my head and I try to focus back on the film. He keeps his arms around me, making it nearly impossible to not get tired. The last thing I hear is Tom Hank's soothing voice rambling on about his life.

Ash lightly shakes me awake as the end credits roll on the tv.

"Did I fall asleep?" I ask with a tired voice. Ashton smiles at me as he draws patterns into my cheek.

"Yeah." he says softly. I lean up and look at him.

"Where'd the other guys go?" I ask.

"They decided to go out. It's just you and me." He says. I was a bit relieved I had time alone with Ashton before we left for tour tomorrow.

"Where are they going?" I ask.

"Does it really matter? We have the house to ourselves!" He yells causing me to jump. He grabs me by the hand and pulls me up.

"We can do whatever, wherever, we want." He says as he pulls me in and presses his nose against mine and then kisses me. I grab his hair between my fingers and hold him against me. I feel his smile against my own.

"We could...play a game" I say. His eyes light up.

"I know the perfect game to play." We both run up stairs into Calum's room and Ashton grabs a box from his cupboard.

"What are you doing" I ask confused. He holds up a box that says 'Twister'. "Really?" I say giving him a grin.

"Hey. We are going to be cramped in a tour bus for 2 weeks. We need to limber up babe." He says giving me a cheeky wink. We walk downstairs and Ash pushes the couches and the coffee table aside to make room to move around. I couldn't help but watch his arms tense up as he forced the heavy furniture to move. He catches me staring at him and he blushes.

"I know my arms are amazing aren't they?" he says holding them up. I play punch him and he gives a playful ow. We both laugh.

"Come on. Lets play." I say smiling.

We both start on either side of the mat.

"Ladies first." He gestures to you. He gives me to the board and I spin the dial.

"Right foot green. Easy"

"It always starts easy." He winks at me. I roll my eyes and give him the board.

"Left hand yellow. Ugh." He says as he bends down and puts his hand on the spot.

We keep going back and forth for a while. I end up having to do the bridge and he is towering over my body with his hand on one side and his feet on the other.

"Your turn" I say, pushing the board in front of him.

"Ok, let's do this." He spins the dial and groans.

"What is it?" I ask.

"Right hand blue." This meant he hand to put his hand over my body towards his feet. I laugh as he reaches over my body and puts his hand on the same spot as the one my hand is on.

I stop laughing. Not cool! "Hey! This is my spot! Go get your own!" I say, still slightly amused looking at his struggling face.

"I can't! If I move any farther I'll fall!" He says. His face is pretty close to my chest and I can feel him breathing at my neck.

"Well you're not staying there!"

"Why? Does this make you uncomfortable?" He says, teasing me now.

"Just move your damn hand." I say inbetween my nervous laughs.

"Ok." He kisses my neck lightly and I struggle to stay in my position.

"Stop!"

"What?" He kisses me again, this time under my jaw. I shiver.

"Stop kissing me! I can't stay still!"

He gives me an evil grin. "Oh really?" He raises his eyebrows and attacks my neck with kisses. His curly hair is tickling my neck and collarbone and I finally collapse.

"Yes! I win!" He shouts victoriously.

"That's not fair! You made me fall!" He leans down, supporting his weight with his arms and stops centimetres away from my lips.

"Maybe you just need to learn not to squirm so much under my touch." He smirks and leans in all the way. He kisses me lightly at first but I start tugging at his hair, leading him on. I start to get more into the kiss as he slips his hands under the hem of my sweater, well his sweater that happens to be on my body, and slides his hands over my bare stomach, hips and back.

The mat is cold against my bare back but I dont mind it because you can feel Ashton's hands against my waist. I grab his shirt and pull it over his head exposing his torso. He smirks at me as he grabs my hand and rolls me around so that I'm on top of him. I sit on his torso with my legs to either side of him and lean in to kiss him. He runs his hand through my hair and down my back grabbing at my skin.

"If I would've known twister led to sex I would've had us play it earlier." he says jokingly. I laugh and blush as we keep kissing. "Just make sure you dont play with anyone else but me." he says. I look at him for a second and he smiles at me. At this point I knew his jealousy was a joke but I still couldn't help but be mindful of it. He moves his kisses from my lips and onto my collarbone and down onto my chest. I hold onto his shoulders for support.

"This is weird." I giggle.

"What is?" He asks as he keeps his lips in contact with my skin.

"You do it once in a bedroom and suddenly you're okay with doing it in the middle of a living room." I say. He stops kissing me and he looks at me with concerned eyes.

"Are you not comfortable?" He says in a sweet concerned voice.

"No Ash. I'm fine" I say blushing. Even after the first time he still wants to make sure I'm okay. He was amazing. It was these little things that he did that made me fall in love with him everyday.

"Are you sure. Cause if your not you know you can tell me right?" He says.

"Just shut up and keep going." I giggle as I push back down to the floor. His smile becomes wider

"God I love you so much" he says pulling me in closer.

His lips reconnected with mine and he rolls me back over so he's on top of me again. He pushes up my sweater again, this time fully, helping me pull it over my head. He kisses me again and slowly works his way down my jaw, neck and collarbone. He looks back up at me and leaves kisses down the middle of my chest. His hands are firm on my waist and I let out a soft moan in response.

"When are the other guys coming back?" I whisper with my eyes still closed.

"I don't know." He says rubbing his hands over the hem of my sweatpants and kissing my belly button. I take a breath in and he rubs his hands over my stomach again.

"Wait. What if they come in?"

"I don't care." He whispers into my skin. I let my head fall back, a little worried about his answer but I don't let it bother me too much. He comes back up to my mouth and kisses me. He smiles and slips his tongue into my mouth. I move my hands over the side of his pants and he moans lightly against my mouth.

"I love you so damn much." He says in between kisses.

I giggle. "Really? I had no idea." I reply, mocking his repetitive remarks.

"Shut up" he says as he begins to lean in again with a huge grin plastered on his face.

Then we hear the door click.


	8. Chapter 8

"Fuck. Are you serious." Ash says frustrated. I feel his body tense up and he rolls off the top of me. I reach for my sweater but before I can throw it on I look up and see Luke staring down at us. His eyes are filled with shock and despair. He doesn't say anything at all he only pretends like he doesn't see anything and he runs upstairs and I hear his bedroom door slam.

"Fabulous." I say under my breath. That is the last possible thing I wanted Luke to see. I finally get my sweater on and the other guys walk in.

"NOT ON MY TWISTER!" Calum shouts. Michael just stares at Ashton with judgemental eyes.

"Alright ASH! Way to go bro!" Michael says as he walks past Ashton giving him a high five. Both the guys walk upstairs leaving us behind. I look over at Ashton and he is red with embarassment.

"I'm so sorry babe. I wasn't thinking" he says.

"It's fine really-"

"No. It's not. I know you didn't want anyone to see you like that. Or doing that. Or-"

"Ash it's fine. Really." I say wrapping my arms around him kissing his cheek but Ashton's face still remains emotionless and he leans away from me. I look up at the clock.

"Well it's only 7:00." I say

"But we should probably go to bed early tonight since we're leaving early in the morning" he tells me. He gets up from the floor and I get up with him. That's weird. Ashton hates going to bed early no matter how early he has to wake up. I look at him and he is packing up the twister kit. Once he's done he looks at me.

"But Ash it's only 7-"

"Yeah. And we have to get up at 5 Dani." Ashton says assuredly. "I'll be right back I'm going to go give this back to Cal" he half smiles at me and runs up the stairs. I go to the kitchen and I take water from the fridge and sit down at the kitchen table. I sat there wondering how things will be the same yet totally different on tour. I was happy I'd be with him but I was worried maybe being together for a whole three weeks would cause tension or he'll grow sick of me. I shake my head. I was worrying to much. That wouldn't happen we loved each other too much. Too much love is never a bad thing...right? After a while of thinking I start to wonder what's taking Ashton so long to give the twister kit back to Calum. I grab my water bottle and I walk up the stairs to find him. Alright Irwin what are you up to.

I reach the top of the stairs and as I look down the hallway Ashton walks out of Luke's room and he brushes his hands through his hair and he leans up against the wall. What was he doing in there? Ashton turns his head in my direction and see me.

"What were you doing in Luke's room?" I ask squeezing my water bottle causing it to crackle. He just walks towards me and wraps his arms around me.

"I wasn't being with you, and that's a problem." He says, smoothly dodging the question and his mood has become happy again. I roll my eyes and decide to drop it, he'll tell me if he wants to. "We should go to bed." He says and I nod. He grabs my hand and we walk into his room. I change out of the sweatpants but leave the sweater on. He changes out of his clothes and gets under the covers. I get in after him and he kisses me quickly on the lips, says "goodnight" and turns his back to me. Ok, he was acting really strange. I whispered goodnight and turned away from his as well. He didn't say 'I love you'. I mean he said it so many times today, maybe he doesn't want to be too repetitive. But at the same time I knew something was bothering him. I looked at the clock, it was 8:30. I can't sleep. I mean it was 8:30! What teenager goes to sleep at 8:30? Plus, I had taken that nap earlier today so I really was not in the mood for sleep. I was annoyed and horribly embarrassed about today. The moment was so perfect and I really needed him but BAM! In come the boys, in comes Luke and ruins it. He was still gentle and sweet but the second the guys came in he turned all frigid and distant. Something must have happened. The only thing that happened that had me a bit worried was when Luke came in and saw us both lying topless on the floor, I mean it doesn't take a detective to figure out what we were up to. I felt so guilty and part of me wanted to chase after him and apologize but that wouldn't have fixed anything. If at all, it would have made Ashton pretty damn furious. I've learned my lesson since last night and this morning. Do not, under any circumstances, go talk to Luke secretly.

I turn around bed and face Ashton. I can hear light snores coming from him so I know he's asleep. I decide to just let it out.

"Ash? Are you awake?" I ask to make sure he wasn't. "I'm sorry about all the stress you've had to go through just because of me. Please don't feel guilty about today, I'm not mad. I mean, yeah I'm a little mad that the guys interrupted us because I really wanted you then and there but..." I sigh. "I love you. So. Freaking. Much." I start to whisper now. "I can't imagine my life without you and I would never leave you. Ever." I take in a deep breath. "Just, don't feel like you need to hide anything from me. We can do this, together. You don't need to do anything alone because you have me." I look at him longingly almost. I laugh a little "I don't even know why I'm making such a big deal out of this." I shake my head and smile at the ceiling. "Just know, I love you. I love you, I love you, I love you. That's so I can catch up to how many times you've told me that you love me. We're even now Irwin." I finish and snuggle into his back. I flinch a little as the body I am up against moves and turns around. His eyes are wide open and even in the darkness I can still see their color. He's looking me straight in the eye.

"I don't want to be even." He kisses my head. "I love you." I smile and he pulls me in, wrapping his arms around my back. Charming little bastard.

I wake up to the sound of the shower from down the hall. I realize it's 5 A.M. and that me and all the other guys had to get up and be ready to go by 7 A.M. I force myself out of bed, rubbing my eyes open. Today was a new day, a new beginning for Ash and I and I couldn't be more excited and frightened at the same time. I make my way out of the bedroom and I see all the boys except Ashton sitting at the kitchen table eating. Ashton must be the one in the shower. I walk downstairs pour myself a glass of water and sit down at the table. "Morning" I say tiredly with a smile and a small yawn.

"Morning how'd you sleep?" Calum asks.

"Just fine thank you." I smile at him and take a sip of my drink.

"I'll bet you were pretty tired after you and Ashton foole-" before Calum can finish Luke bumps him.

"Stop it." Luke tells him as he tries to avoid eye contact with me. I look down at my water a bit embarrassed.

"Are you ready to live on a tour bus for 3 weeks?" Michael asks me.

"I think so. But I guess I can't tell you until I've been on one." I laugh. Luke gets up from the table and starts washing his plate in the sink.

"It doesn't really matter if she's ready or not she'll have to get used to it no matter what." Luke says. I think he was joking around so I give a slight chuckle. Although his stern face when he turns around and looks at me makes me think differently. "I'm gonna go kick Ashton out of the shower. He's been in there long enough. And I need to use the bathroom before we leave." Luke says as he runs up the stairs.

"Awkward." Calum says and Michael laughs along with him.

"Do you know what Luke and Ash were talking about last night?" I ask out of the blue. Surely these guys could tell me.

"Ummm. Nope. I have no idea." Cal says taking a nervous sip of his coffee. I didn't believe him but it was to early to try and bring it out of him. I wasn't quite hungry and I was done with my water so I decided to go upstairs and get ready as well.

I needed a shower to so hopefully Luke doesn't take too long either. But I'm assuming he will because...well it's Luke. I walk into Ashton's bedroom and see him standing in the closet with just his skinny jeans on and his hair not yet fixed.

"Morning." I tell him and he turns around to look at me. His face still tired and not quite awake.

"Morning babe. Did you sleep well?" He tells me with a restless voice. I walk over to him and I wrap my arms around his bare torso.

"Of course I did. I was sleeping next to you wasn't I?" I smile and kiss him.

"Good point." he says laughing as he leans in and kisses me back. I look around and see that he had already packed our stuff up.

"You packed my stuff up?" I ask.

"Yeah I did about an hour ago. I didn't want you to have to worry about it." He says. Why was he such a gentleman.

"That's too sweet...you packed everything right? I'm not gonna unpack my suitcase on the bus and realize that i don't have any socks?" I jokingly ask him. He turns to look at me as he pulls a band shirt over his head causing his curls to cover over his eyes and he takes his hands and pushes them to the side.

"No of course I didn't forget anything! What kind of boyfriend would I be if I forgot anything. And also I wouldn't worry about me not packing your socks. If I were you I'd be worried about not finding any bras when you unpack your suitcase." He says grinning. I push him

"Ashton!" I squeal.

"What! I'm just saying it would be very convienient those things are hard to get off especially when you want to-" I cut him off.

"Okay okay. Well I'm gonna go hop in the shower myself. I'm watching you though. And my bras." I laugh at him and kiss him as I walk out of the room. I reach the bathroom and see the door closed. Luke must still be in there. I knock

"Luke are you almost done" he opens the door immediately and I see him standing there with his hair all done and his face all washed.

"Yeah. The bathroom is all yours." He says pushing past you. Well then. I hop in the shower and start singing some tunes.

I'm not the best singer but hey, when I've got a song stuck in my head you damn well know I'm gonna sing it. Once I finish I get out of the shower and walk back to the room. Ashton's packing in a pair of shoes and sees me standing in my towel. He raises his eyebrows and says

"Now I really wish I didn't pack any of your bras" I roll my eyes playfully and walk to the closest to get some clothes. Turns out Ashton already packed them and I walk to the suitcase so I can pull something out.

"Oh, I already set something out for you babe. It's over on the chair" I kiss him on the cheek and say "Thank you". I walk to the chair and see nothing but a bra, underwear and socks. I turn around and give him an 'are you fucking serious' look and he just laughs.

"I'm just kidding. Here." He holds out a pair of jeans, a shirt and an oversized sweater and I walk over and grab it from him. I walk into the closet with my change of clothes and before I close the door I drop my towel outside so he can clearly see it.

"You're such a tease." He says and I giggle as I change into my clothes. I come out and he's not there anymore. I look at the time and it's already 6:45. My suitcases is already down stairs so I just grab my purse and phone and head down. I see the four boys packing their stuff into a black van. Ashton sees me and walks into the house. "

Hey, do you have everything?"

"I think so" I smile.

"Ok, well then. Let's go!" He grabs my hand and pulls me outside to the car. He drops my hand momentarily so he can lock the door. The other three guys get into the car and I follow behind them. Luke and Michael are sitting in the front row and Calum is sitting in the back. I glance at Luke but he's completely blocked out with his headphones in and with his phone in hand. I was both relieved and worried that he didn't at least notice my glance. Luke wasn't alright and I could tell. As I walk past him I can clearly hear the Foo Fighters blasting from his earbuds. God Luke at least be nice to your ear drums. I crawl to the back and Ashton sits next to me. He puts his arm around me and says

"Ready?"

"Mmhmm"

"Good." He kisses me on the cheek and the car starts to move. I was still a little sleepy so I decided to spend this time to get a little bit more sleep. I lean my head on Ash's shoulder and close my eyes. Before I know it, he's shaking me awake. "We're here." I open my eyes and the car door opens. Luke and Michael get out first and the rest of us follow. In front of me is this giant bus. The giant bus. "Dani, say hello to Gus 3.0" Michael says gesturing to the bus.

"Nice."


	9. Chapter 9

"Well we can't delay boys. We have an interview at 2! Let's go!" Michael says excitedly and him and Calum run racing each other onto the bus. Luke takes his sweet time walking to the bus and lazily climbs in. Before I get on the bus Ashton turns around and looks at me.

"It's weird getting on the bus and not having to kiss you goodbye." He says smiling.

"It's a good weird though." I say leaning and kissing him.

"COME ONE! LETS GO LOVE BIRDS!" Calum says sticking his head out of the bus door. Ash and I laugh and he helps me climb up onto the bus. I had only ever seen the bus from the outside and the inside looked exactly like it did in all the photos and keeks. The small kitchen area, the mini hall of bunks, and then the back room with the couch and television. Ashton takes me by the hand and guides me to the bunks. He stops at one directly in front and to the right of the backroom.

"This my dear is my bunk." He says smiling as he throws his suitcase on top of it. "And your bunk is right here." He says turning around and pointing to the bunk directly opposite from it.

"That used to be Luke's bunk but Ashton kicked him out because he'd rather wake up and see your face rather than Luke's" Michael says and Ashton sends him a stern look. But Michael just giggles and smiles at him.

"I've been downgraded to another bunk." Luke says. I smiled but I felt kind of bad about kicking him out of his spot. All of a sudden the bus starts to move and the guys give a cheer.

"Yay! We are off!" Cal says as he lays down on his bunk playing on his phone. All the other guys are laying on their beds and Luke has even fallen back asleep with his headphones in. Asthon grabs me and we go to the back room closing the door behind us. I sit on the couch resting my head against his chest as he runs his fingers through my still damp hair.

"Look at us. Touring together." He says smiling at me and his cheeks get red.

"I know. I never could've imagined any of this. It feels like yesterday I was standing in the front row." I smile and I feel Ashton's grip become tighter around me.

"Now you'll be backstage watching from the sidelines." He says kissing me on the head. I lean in closer to him and I can feel his steady heartbeat.

"Do you ever get tired of doing interviews?" I ask him since I knew he had one today.

"No interviews are fun. I just wish sometimes they'd ask us different questions. It seems like sometimes you're answering the same questions it's just a different person asking them." He says.

"Do you ever wish they asked you personal things?" I ask.

"Sometimes yeah. But at the same time I'm happy they don't. The fans already know so much and there are some things you want to keep as your own you know."

"Like what?"

"Just certain things." He says quietly.

"Things you couldn't tell me?" I say placing my hand on this thigh and rubbing it lightly.

"Things I just need to keep to myself." He says quickly and shakily. I didn't know what that meant. I obviously knew that Ashton hadn't told me everything about himself but I wish sometimes he was more open about things so that i could help him like he helps me.

"If you want to keep them. You keep them." I say with a sigh as I lean up and kiss him on the cheek.

"Hmmm" he says and I rest my head back on his chest. He turns on the tv and flips through the channels. Friends is on so I ask him to stop there. He seems kind of distracted and takes out his phone, probably tweeting or something. Then the slider separating the back room and the bunks opens and Calum walks in with his phone in hand.

"And this is the back room." He points the phone at usand says "oh look! It's a wild Ashton and Daniella." I cover my face and hide in Ashton's shirt. I groan since I didn't really put much effort into my makeup this morning. Ashton laughs a little and makes a really strange face at the camera.

"Whatcha doin' there Calum?" He says in the strangest voice.

"I'm keeking. I thought I'd show the fans Gus 3.0. Then again, Gus 3.0 is basically the same as Gus 2.0" Ashton fake gasps at Calum's comment and says

"HOW DARE YOU!?" He puts his hands flat against the wall of the bus. "He has feelings too!" Ashton being to fake sob. Calum laughs and turns the camera back to his face.

"Oh god I have 3 seconds left. Okloveyouguysbye!" He stops the keek and sits on the couch across from us. I remove my hands from your face and sigh.

"Why'd you have to point the camera at me?" I groan.

"Because the world has to see your beautiful face." Ashton says and pecks your lips.

"Ugh. This is getting too cute for me, I'm gonna go to the front of the bus."

"No! Calum! You are the king of cuteness!" I shout after him and you and Ashton laughs.

"Hey I thought I was the king of cuteness." Ashton pouts. I giggle.

"You are, I just want to make sure that everyone feels special." I say.

"Mmmmm." Ash says suspiciously. I feel my phone in my pocket buzz and see that I've gotten a text from Luke. 'Meet me in the bunks', it says. I get a second one 'we need to talk.' I roll my eyes at the messages. What does he want. I start to get up as Ashton asks,

"Who was that?" I don't want to upset him or make this confusing so I just say

"My mom. I'm gonna go call her"

"Oh, ok. Tell her I said hi." I laugh a little because your mom hasn't actually properly met Ash. I realize it is strange to be out on tour with a guy your parent has never met but he's never been in a place long enough to give it a chance. I peck him on the lips.

"Ok". I go through the slider an close it again. 'Here goes nothing' and walk to Luke's bunk.

When I walk up to his bunk Luke s still looking at his phone. I tap him to get his attention and he looks up at me and he sits himself up. He gets up and he walks to the small kitchen area and I follow him. We sit at the small table across from each other.

"Luke what are you doing?" I say.

"What?"

"Why do we need to talk? You ignore me and (h/n) all day and now we need to talk" I tell him.

"I know that you and Ashton are happy. And that you two have settled things down. And I'm happy for you but I just need you to know that everything I did yesterday to help you guys was because I wanted you to be happy and-"

"And what? Are you asking for a thank you? Gee thanks Luke for helping me fix the relationship you almost screwed the fuck up." I say angrily. I look at him and he is looking down at his hands. "Luke I'm sorry I didn't mean that."

"Are you sure you don't really hate me?" he looks up at me his lips in a small frown. I don't know what to say to that, I hesitate but he says something before I can. "All I'm saying is that I'm glad you're here and that you're happy but I need you to know that..." he stops and he continues in a whisper as he leans his body across the table so that he is closer to me. "I need you to know that I still love you and I don't know how or how long it'll take me to get over you. I mean how do you get over someone who was never even yours in the first place." I stare at him and I didn't know what to say. I just wish he'd stop saying that he loved me. I didn't want to hear those words from anyone but Ashton

"Well Luke you're gonna have to learn to get over it quickly. Because I'm in love with Ash and nothing in the world not even the fact that you love me is going to stop that. And if both of us have to share this tour bus then you're going to have to learn to get over it or try not to bring it up." I tell him harshly. Luke needs to learn to accept the truth. It hurts him more than hurts me to tell it.

"That's easy for you to say isn't it. You aren't the bad guy in this situation. No one is asking you to back off or to suffer in silence. You get to be happy. He gets to be happy. Everyone on this fucking bus is happy but me. But no one cares. I'm supposed to be the best friend, the brother, and not say anything about it. I know people might give a shit about me in some dumb magazine but it doesn't feel like people give a shit about me or how I feel." He says looking straight into my eyes.

"Don't you think that's a bit selfish of you to say. People care about you Luke" I tell him.

"I'm sorry that voicing my opinion makes you think I'm selfish. And it's kind of hard to think people care when the one person you wish cared about you doesn't even love you back." He looks up at me and then suddenly I see his eyes stray away to the side. His eyes become fearful and frigid. I look up and see Ashton standing there.

"Ash-" Luke says.

"What the hell are you doing?" Ashton asks Luke as he puts his hand on my shoulder and squeezes it tightly. But before Luke can answer the bus driver stops the bus and I feel my self jolt forward.

"We're at the radio station lads. Have a good interview." The bus driver says as he opens the doors to the bus and the screams of girls roars through the cabin.

Luke gets up and pulls a beanie over his head. He throws on some sunglasses and heads out the door, without saying another word. The scream of girls gets louder as Luke steps out the door. The other two boys get out as well, leaving Ashton and I alone. "

What was that about?" He asks me.

"Why should I tell you, you're clearly hiding something from me too." I get up and look him in the eye. "Have a good interview. Maybe you'll finally want to tell me what's been bothering you since yesterday because honestly, it's bothering me too." I turn around and leave to the bunks. I hear him make a frustrated noise and then I hear the door close, signaling that he had left. I lie down on my bunk and immediately start to regret what I said to Ashton. It wasn't his fault. I was just furious at Luke. He was making me feel terrible. He made me feel as if I was the bad guy for not loving him back. At the same time, I felt terrible for making him feel so unwanted. This was just a huge mess. Literally! One moment I'm happy as can be with Ashton and the next I'm miserable because I feeling guilty for not loving someone back. I bury my head into my pillow and I feel my eyes tearing up. Ugh. Fucking tears. I walk to Ashton's bag on his bed and open it up. I rummage through it and find a sweater. I pull it over and hug it close. I snuggle into it and smell his sent. Now the tears come. It's so stupid. 'Why am I crying' I think. Freaking female hormones. I lie in his bed for what seems like ages just thinking about how much can happen in so little time. 72 hours. It has only been 72 hours, if that, and there's already a huge mess. I sudenly hear the screaming of girls getting louder. I wait and hear the door to the bus open. The guys are talking to each other and then they go silent once they get to the bunks. I feel a hand on my back and I turn around to see Ash sitting there with an apologetic expression. He sees my red eyes and hugs me.

"I'm sorry. I know you think I'm hiding something from you and you have all the right to be thinking that. It's just not what you think, I promise." He grabs my hands and helps me off the bunk.

"Dani and I are going to the back to talk" he tells the other boys and pulls me into the room. We sit down across from each other and he holds my hands inbetween the two of us. I sniff and he looks up.

"Look. The truth is that I'm not trying to hide anything from you, there's nothing to hide." He pauses. "Honestly, I feel like I'm forcing you through this too quickly." I look at him confused. He thought we were going to quickly? "I know you keep saying you want this and you want more but I still don't feel confident that you're ready fo-" I break him off by grabbing his cheeks and kissing him. His hands automatically go around my waist and he kisses me back desperately. I pull away and say

"You're not rushing me. I'm 100% ready for anything you throw at me. Well... Almost anything" I laugh.

"Well. Ok then." He smiles. "But I think we should set some ground rules first." I look at him strange. "Hey! This is going to make me feel better so... Just- just go with it, ok?" I nod and he intertwines his fingers around your waist. He begins.

"Ok, so kissing:"

"Yes, duh."

"Making out:"

"Always" I wink at him. He smiles.

"Sex." He looks at me unsure. I think for a moment but I know what my answer is.

"Yes." He smiles at my response. "But only, in cases where we don't get caught."

"Deal." We both laugh.

"Ok, sleeping together:"

"Yes, but right now, always with at least underwear on." He raises his eyebrows and says

"No bra?" I hit him and he laughs a little rubbing his arm.

"Ok! Ok! With a bra." He smiles.

"Is that it?" I say as I lock my fingers around his neck and straddle his legs.

"Yes. That's all." He kisses me lightly and I smile. God I just couldn't stop smiling around that boy.

"I like your sweater by the way." He says glancing down at my clothes.

"Yeah, I saw it today and it just looked so comfortable so I had to take it." I say making up a story.

"Aha. And is it comfortable?" I look down at him.

"Very." He kisses my forehead and I lean against him. He grabs a bottle of water that was sitting on the table and starts drinking. "So how was the interview?" He chokes on his water a little and clears his throat.

"Um. It was a little awkward." He says.

"How so?"

"Well the interviewer asked us if any of us had a girlfriend, to which I proudly raised my hand." He says pressing his nose to my cheek and pulling me in closer.

"Obviously." I respond. He chuckles and continues.

"Then he asked the other guys if they had their eyes on anyone and they all shook their heads."

"Mhmm"

"But the guy wouldn't drop it so he asked all of the guys separately saying that they 'must like someone'" Ashton says mocking the interviewers voice.

"And..."

"And when he asked Luke, he glanced at me and nodded saying 'yeah, kinda. But I know she doesn't think of me that way.'" I freeze. Luke had basically announced to the world that he 'may like you'. "The guy was intrigued and he started pep talking Luke saying things like 'please you Luke Hemmings what girl would turn you down' and 'this girl must be crazy if she doesn't want to be with you. You have to fight for her.'" Ashton stops and he crushes the water bottle with his hands and I feel my face tense up. That could not have been easy for either Ash or Luke to hear.

"That's ummm...that's ."

"Frustrating." Ashton finishes my sentence.

"Yeah." I say under my breath.

"But besides that is was fine. Same old questions." He says and I had lost my train of thought.

"Hmm. Good" I peck him on the lips and he says.

"Speaking of, this one girl outside said we were a really cute couple and that she 'totally shipped us'" he says mocking a fangirly kind of voice. I hit his chest.

"Hey! We do not all sound like that!"

"Sure, whatever you say babe." I giggle and he kisses me one more time. And then I realized that Ash does this alot. In fact he was a master at it. He had this way of always changing the topic, making bad moments switch to good moments in order to avoid the problem. But I had to admit I was the master of falling for his tricks. I just couldn't help it. He makes me smile.

"You know what? I'm kind of hungry. What kind of food do you have on the bus?"

"Gus 3.0" he corrects me. I giggle.

"Sorry, on Gus 3.0?" He smiles and says

"Well, let's go find out m'lady."


	10. Chapter 10

We walk down the small hallway into the kitchen area. Ashton reaches over and flings open the fridge.

"Alrighty let's see here. We have some salad, pudding, an apple." He says holding the apple up into my face. I laugh. "We have some leftover noodles from the other day and a power bar. Wow. We really need to stock GUS bus 3.0 up!" He says as he gets up and looks at me. "So what will it be babe?" He asks putting his hands around my waist.

"Actually a salad and pudding sounds kind of good." I say smiling but when I look up at Ashton, he is making a cringe face.

"Eww babe why would you put pudding on a salad?" He asks me. I slap him on the shoulder

"No not together Ash! Gross. I meant I will enjoy them both seperately. I will eat the salad and enjoy a pudding cup afterwards." I say elegantly.

"Well okay then." He pulls out the plastic container of salad which luckily has a dressing packet on the inside and he grabs the pudding cup. He sets it down on the table and I sit down. Ashton grabs one fork and two spoons. I look up at him oddly and he smiles at me.

"Why only one fork and two spoons?" I ask as Ashton hands me the fork.

"Because, I'm not that hungry so I don't think I can eat a salad but you're never to full for pudding!" He says excitedly raising the pudding cup and the spoon in the air. I laugh at him and I just raise my eyebrows as I pour the dressing over the salad and start to eat.

With that, my mind starts to wonder. "Do you really think all of us sound like that?" I ask him.

"All of who sound like what?"

"All of us fangirls?"

"Babe I wouldn't call you a fangirl. Well not anymore." I give him a grin. "And no not all of them sound like that. But it's fun to listen to the ones that do. They say the cutest things. Like when they tell you they're an Ashton girl or a Michael girl. I think that's funny like how could someone be a girl for a certain band member? Like what does that even mean?" He says smiling as he leans back and brushes his hair with his fingers.

"It's hard to explain. It's like you obviously care about all the band members and you think they're all important but there is that one band member that you just have a connection with, that one band member that you can imagine yourself being with, you know like as a friend or more." I say taking a bite of my salad.

I look up at Ash, his face gone straight until he releases an unhappy chuckle. "Oh." He says as he looks down at his hands. Crap. That probably wasn't the best way to explain it considering I wasn't an Ashton girl to start off.

He looks up at me with questioning eyes. "Sooo, would that mean you're an Ashton girl?" he asks nervously.

"No." I say. He looks at me worried. "I'm Ashton's girl." I lean over and kiss him on the lips. As he kisses back, I can feel his growing smile against my lips. I breakaway and Calum walks in.

He looks over at the table we're sitting at and walks over to the drawers to grab a spoon. "Oooh pudding!" Calum says, taking a seat next to Ashton.

"Hey now you two I had this pudding first and it's not big enough for all three of us!" I say.

"Yeah Ashton get out of here so Dani and I can enjoy our pudding together." Cal says laughing. Ashton sends him a funny look as he smiles and play hits Calum with one of the spoons. All three of us are laughing uncontrollably at this point.

"Okay guys simmer down." I say and Ashton and Calum look up at me and Ashton winks.

"Simmer down?" Ashton says smiling. I roll my eyes. They were the only band I knew that caught when people quoted their song lyrics.

"Whatever. I'm sure we can find a way to split this into threes." I say as I open up the small pudding cup. I take a small bite and make an mmm noise. Then the other guys join in and soon enough, we're all enjoying a pudding cup together.

Suddenly I hear Calum talking into the camera and realize he's keeking again. "Hello keek! I'm here with Ashton and Daniella and we are in the middle of a threeway!" Calum exclaims.

"CALUM!" Ashton shouts as I laugh.

"A threeway of pudding of course. Jesus what did you think I meant Ash? Can you believe this guy." The keek ends and we sit there eating my pudding and then Michael and Luke walk in.

"OOOOOO pudding!" Michael says and moves in beside me. "Gimme some."

I giggle at his childish behaviour. "Well go grab a spoon if you want some!"

He pouts. "I have to get up again? Noooo. I don't want to." I laugh and he starts leaning his head towards my spoonful. I pull it away.

"Yuk! No! I don't want germs! Who know what diseases they could hold!"

He pouts. "Why does Ashton get to eat from your spoon and I don't?"

"Because they share much more than just saliva." Luke cuts in. Luke gives Michael a spoon and he happily takes some pudding.

"Do you want some pudding?" I ask him.

"No, I'm good. I don't want to share one pudding cup with all of these guys, who knows what they could have done to it." I drop my spoon and stick out my tongue.

"Ugh. Thanks for reminding me." Luke starts laughing and I can't help but smile.

"Hey, there's nothing wrong with me!" Ashton complains. "Speaking of, why does Michael get to sit with my girlfriend and I don't?"

Michael throws his arm over my shoulder and snuggles himself into my side. "Because Dani and I are dating. We're cheating on you Ashton. I'm sorry you had to find out this way." He says In a jokingly manner.

I laugh and rest my head on his chest. "I'm sorry babe, it's true."

Ashton fake gasps and starts to dramatically cry. "Why!? My own best friend! And my girlfriend! Tell me why God!? WHY?!" Everyone in the bus starts to laugh, including Luke who is leaning on the counter across from the table and has his head thrown back from laughing. I smile, this was good, right? Michael pulls his arm from me and I awkwardly blush.

Ashton stands up, clearly still in this character. He walks over to Michael and continues talking in his weird accent. "You will never steal MY girl!" He then proceeds to slow-mo punch Michael in the face 'causing' Michael to fall to the ground saying "Noooooo" really really slowly.

Once Michael is 'dead' on the floor, Ash stands up straight and moves in next to me. He throws his arm around me and kisses me on the cheek. "You're mine." He whispers into my ear. At this point I had all laughed so much my diaphragms was starting to hurt.

"Remind me never to get on Ashton's bad side" Calum says inbetween laughs.

"Trust me, you don't want to be." Luke says with a slight chuckle at the end. I look at him and he looks back at me. I give him a small apologetic smile because I know what he's talking about. He just smiles back at me and nods once.

"So!" Michael says darting up from the floor. "What do we do now?" He asks.

"Well we have a show tonight and we'll be at the venue in about an hour or so." Luke says.

"So we've got an hour to kill, what could we do?" I ask the guys.

"I know what we could do." Ashton seductively whispers in my ear.

"Eww" Calum says. I blush and Ashton kisses my head.

"Well, if you do that, you'll maybe kill 2-3 minutes so..." Michael says and Ashton punches him in the arm causing him to laugh and say "ouch" as he rubs his arm.

All the other guys leave the kitchen so that Ashton and I are left sitting alone again.

"You excited to see us play babe?" He asks me.

"Of course." I say as I smile intertwining my hands with his.

"But listen try not to distract me too much while I'm on stage." He says smiling.

"Distract you? How could I possibly distract you?" I say giggling.

"Well if I look over to the side of the stage, try not to look to good like you always do or else I'll be mesmerized and forget what I'm playing." He says giving me a wink. I blush.

"I'll try but no promises." I say smiling back at him.

"Okay well we still have to kill about thirty minutes so what should we do." He asks.

"We could just not do anything and just talk." I say and he smiles back at me.

"Sounds good." He smiles as he tightens his grip on my hands.

"So, what was it about me on that day I went to see your show that had you wanting to talk to me, out of all people?" I ask him because I've always been curious.

"You know I have no real answer to that question. I guess it was because you were this beautiful girl, who enjoyed our music, and you were smiling the whole show and your smile was just, I mean it was amazing. And it was the way you moved to the music and the way you sung along to the words and I guess it was just everything." His face goes red as he smiles down at the ground.

"But I mean there were plenty of beautiful girls doing the same exact thing." I tell him.

"I know but there was just something about you. And when I bumped into you after the show I thought to myself 'hey it's this gorgeous girl from the crowd. What are the odds I run into you. I have to take a chance and ask her out. Or I'll hate myself for not taking a shot'" He says getting up from the table and wrapping his arms around me kissing me on the cheek and placing his chin on my shoulder. "Little did I know that I'd fall in love with you." He says turning me head around and kissing me.

I stand up keeping in contact with his lips I wrap my arms around his shoulder and he moves his hands down to my waist and he pushes me in closer. Suddenly the bus jerks to a stop and Ashton stumbles to the floor and I stumble on top of him. He lets out a grunt and grabs his shoulder.

"Ow." he says with the wind knocked out of him.

"Oh my god Ashton I'm so sorry!" I say. I prop him up against the wall and he leans his head back. I lift up his sleeve and I see a giant bruise on his shoulder.

"It's okay it's not your fault. I'm not very sure footed" he says laughing. "It's just a bruise babe." He says noticing the worry in my eyes. I get up and grab ice from the fridge and wrap it up in a plastic baggie. I walk over and lean down and place the bag on his shoulder. He shutters a bit.

"Oooh. That's cold." He says.

"Well keep ice on it." I says as I see him looking into me eyes.

"You take such good care of me." He says smiling as he leans in and kisses me. The other guys walk in. "We're here!" Michael yells with excitement.

"Woah. What happened?" Luke asks as he looks at me holding the ice pack against Ash.

"Ash had a little tumble." I says giggling. Ashton gets up and takes the ice pack from mw keeping it on his shoulder.

"Ready boys?" Ashton says enthusiastically.

"Ready!" Calum says as he and the other guys follow Ashton and I out of the bus.

The three guys go out before Ashton and I. Ash grabs my hand, holding it tightly.

"Ok, I know you've never gone through this kind of thing but just stay close to me and you'll be fine." He smiles at me and I nod. We walk out of the bus hand in hand and I am immediately overcome by the sound of screams. I duck my head and I grab his arm with my other hand. We were being swarmed by people, I felt kind of claustrophobic. We finally get into the venue and I release a breath I didn't realize I was keeping in. He hugs me and says

"See. Was that too bad?" I look at him, still catching my breath. I nod my head a little. He kisses my head "Don't worry, you won't need to get used to that. We'll sneak you out later tonight." I smile and nod, still a little shaken up. He grabs my hand and we walk into what looks like their dressing room. We sit down on the couch with the other guys.

"So how much time do we have until the show starts?" I ask.

"About 3 hours" Calum says looking at his phone. "

Wow. What do you guys normally do before shows?"

"We normally listen to music, chill, do weird shit." Michael says.

"Hmm, seems reasonable." Ashton lies down and rests his head on my lap. I smile and run my hands through his hair. I smile down at him and he looks up at me.

"You have beautiful eyes, you know that?" I tell him.

"Well it's a good thing I've got nice eyes, I need to compete with this beautiful creature." I smile and lean down and kiss him. He lifts his hand and pushes my head towards him. His hand stays in my hair and I smile. "I love you." He whispers and smiles kissing me again.

"I love you too" All of a sudden loud rock music starts playing, causing the both of us to jump.

"What the hell!?" Ashton shouts over the deafening music. I look up and see Luke standing by the stereo.

"Can you turn that down?!" I scream, trying to get his attention. I feel Ashton drop his hand on my lap, annoyed. Luke finally turns down the music. "Thank you." Wow. Smooth move Luke. After two hours of messing around, the guys need to get their hair done.

"I'll be right back babe" Ashton pecks me on the lips and disappears into another room. I take out my phone and go through twitter. Nothing interesting. I feel the couch dip down next to me. I look to my right and see Luke sitting down next to me.

"Nice move." I say rolling my eyes. He looks down at his phone. "Are you sure you're ok? Because you sure as hell haven't been acting like it."

"When did I ever say I was okay?" Luke says harshly.

"Well you didn't but I assumed that-"

"You assumed?" and then in a voice mocking me he continued

"Oh Luke is just gonna have to be okay with it. Maybe if I talk to him he'll be okay with it. Oooh let me kiss my boyfriend in front of him because that'll make him feel okay. Let me be so nice and cute and beautiful all the time around him yeah that sounds like a good idea." He was making it very difficult for me not to start to hating him.

"That wasn't very necessary." I say offended.

"I'm sorry. Are you okay?" He says sarcastically. I turn around and look at him

"You know what Luke I don't understand why this is so difficult for you!"

"Are you fucking serious right now Dani! How could this not be difficult for me?" He yells.

"No I mean I know why but I guess I don't understand why you make yourself miserable over something that's never gonna happen." I say looking into his deep blue eyes and I see his face turn from anger to sadness.

"It almost happened." he whispers.

"What do you mea-" Before he can respond all the other guys walk in the room. I see Luke put in his earphones as he walks over to the other side of the room and slouches down on the couch.

"Do I look pretty babe?" Ashton says smiling twirling his fingers through his hair.

"Absolutely gorgeous Ashton. I'm jealous." I say smiling. I didn't understand how I did that. How could I be angry at Luke and feel tears and anger swell up inside of me and then the next second I felt happier than ever before. I knew it was because of Ashton. But sometimes it felt like I was lying to him. I wish I could talk to him about the things that Luke and I fight about but I knew that would just upset him and anger him.

"Aww don't be jealous babe. You'll look this fabulous one day to I promise." Ash says sitting down next to me and wrapping his arm around me.

"Really Ashton you think that one day I can be as beautiful as you?" I say jokingly staring into his eyes.

"Of course m'lady. One day you will be so beautiful that I Ashton Irwin will be forced to bow down to you." He says as he kisses me on the lips.

"Hasn't that day already come I mean you guys bowed down to each other without clothes on the other night." Michael says and Ashton throws a pillow at him.

"Shut the hell up Michael!" Ashton says laughing. I look over and I see Luke stand up.

"I'm gonna go walk around the venue for a few minutes." He says. Luke was clearly uncomfortable with Michael's comment.

"He's not wrong Ash" I say laughing.

"Wait a minute so you mean. You had sex with me in order to trick me into bowing down to you. Does this mean that?" He says making a fake gasp. I rise up

"Yes! I am now more beautiful than Ashton Irwin!" I say throwing my hands in the air. Ash gets up and kneels down on one knee.

"M'lady. I am not worthy of your presence." he says bowing his head down to the floor.

"I know. I know. I am glorious." I say.

"But can you defend yourself?" Ashton suddenly asks. I looked down at him confused

"what-" Ashton grabs me by the legs and throws me over his shoulders.

"Oh my god ASHTON!" Put me down!" I say hitting my hands against his back.

"I'm sorry. But I cannot accept the fact that you are the most beautiful person i have ever seen! I must take you far away from this land and re-claim my rightful place!" Ashton says as he carries me out of the dressing room and he carries me for a while until we reach the opening of the parking lot where I see the equipment buses parked. He sets me down gently and kisses me.

"You're too cute." I say smiling at him. He leans up against the side of the entrance and I lean in closer to him. He puts his hands on my waist and grabs them tightly.

"It's a good thing you're not heavy or I would've thrown my shoulder out a long time ago." He says giggling.

"Are you not calling me fat?" I say jokingly. He smirks at me.

"I see what you did there." He says as he grabs the back of me head and he kisses me. We kiss passiontaely for a long time. We keep kissing and then I notice someone singing outside. The sound of the voice becomes louder and louder I open my eyes and I see Luke carrying his phone and his earphones walking towards us. Ashton doesn't notice and he keeps kissing me. I pull away quickly.

"Okay. I think we should go back to the dressing room and get you back to focusing on your performance." I say quickly.

"Umm okay babe but we're not done here." He says kissing me. Come one Ashton hurry up I think. I know that if Luke catches he would bitch about it to me later and I didn't want to give Luke anymore proof that Ashton and I are always throwing things in his face. Even if it was accidentally. Ash and I start walking down the corridor.

"I'll race you there." I say as I start to run fast.

"Oh you're on!" I hear Ashton shout as he sprints past me. I run after him giggling as I run. I'm not wearing the right shoes so he's way faster than me. I slow down. 'Damn. I need to get in shape' I think. I stop and feel a hand on my shoulder. I turn around and see Luke looking at me. I sigh.

"Are you ok? You look a little out of shape." I roll my eyes and put my hands on my hips.

"Thanks Luke. That's exactly what every girl wants to hear." His eyes widen and he starts to become really nervous.

"I'm sor-I didn't-No!-you look-great-I-um-sorry."

"What are you doing Luke?" I say annoyed. "You are literally the most confusing person I know." He looks down. "I know this isn't easy for you. I've been trying to ease your pain but there's only so much I can do. I'm gonna want to kiss Ashton. I'm going to want to touch him and hold his hand and tell him I love him." He looks down and puts his hands in his pockets. "Look, I understand that this isn't going to go away like that. And I'm gonna try harder to make it easier for you but I can't stop Ashton. Ok?" He looks up and stares at me. He groans in frustration and runs his hands through his hair turning around and walking away from me.

"Why the hell do you always say the right thing?" He angrily says and walks back towards mw. He holds his hands in between the two of us and quickly shoves them back in his pockets.

"Why are you so figity?" I ask him. He takes his hands back out if his pockets and and leaves them at his sides. He moves his fingers around, nervously. Before I could say anything else I hear a voice behind me.

"Hey! Whatcha doing?" Ashton jogs up behind me and sees me talking with Luke. He looks at me and back at Luke. He decides not to question it and grabs my hand.

"The show's about to start" I turn around and he wraps his arm around ymyur waist. "Luke you probably want to get ready too." He shouts back.

"Yeah! Thanks." Luke shouts and we walk into the dressing room. Ashton turns back to me and leans down and kisses my head.

"You ready to watch your first performance from backstage?" I bite my lip and nod. "Then let's go." He kisses me one more time and we head towards the stage.


	11. Chapter 11

I watch the guys prepare their instruments seconds before the show starts. Ashton wraps a navy blue bandana around his head and he twirls his drumsticks in his hands. I see the lights go out in the stadium and I hear the crowd roar.

"You might want to use these babe." Ashton says handing me a pair of earbuds.

"THANK YOU!" I scream above the noise. He chuckles.

"Alright here we go." He kisses me and he follows the guys and they run on stage and the guitars begin to play.

"I love you!" I shout at him. He turns around and blows me a kiss right before he smacks the drums and begins to do his thing. The guys go through their usual routine of songs in the same order as I remember seeing it the first time. They sure are creatures of habit I think and chuckle to myself. After the third song they stop and introduce themselves. "Hello! I'm Ashton! And I'm so happy to be with all you beautiful people tonight!" He says to the crowd as he turns to me and winks and I hear the fans scream. I blush and can't help but think he was only talking about me.

"You guys are a lovely crowd!" Calum says.

"Yes you are! Thank you so much for supporting us and letting us band with you!" Luke says smiling. I smile because that's the first time I've seen him actually smile in a while, it's amazing what performing in front of the fans can do to these boys. After quite some time of introducing themselves they decide to slow things down with Amnesia. I sit there with my eyes closed listening to the harmonies and the melodies. I loved that song so much it was gorgeous. The way Micahel would swtich to the acoustic guitar, the way the symbols chimed, the harmonies. Everything.

"I love this song too." A woman says to me snapping me out of my trance. i open my eyes and she is obviously a woman who works backstage because she has a headset on and clipboards. "I'm sorry did I startle you. I'm Becca. I work here at the arena." She says sticking her hand out to me. I shake it and smile.

"Hi Becca. Nice to meet you. I'm Daniella." I say turning my attention back to the song. I look at Luke and I can see the hurt in his eyes as he sings it and without thinking he glances at me and gives me a sad smile and I feel my chest ache. Luke.

I try to avoid feeling anything about it and I focus back to Ashton and I smile at him and he looks to me and smiles back.

"You know you two make a cute couple." Becca says to me.

"Thank you." I say smiling. What a nice lady.

"I wish my husband would go dress shopping with me but no." She says chuckling. I give her a confused look.

"Excuse me what was that?" I say shaking my head at her and givingher a confused smile.

"I'm just saying it's nice that you and Luke can find things to do together as a couple."

"Luke...oh no Luke and I are not a couple."

"Oh are you two not public yet?" She asks.

"No Luke and I have never been a couple." I say frustrated. Why would she think that and how did she know I went dress shopping with him.

"Well sweetheart that's not what it says in this magazine."

"What magazine!?" I shout. She flips through the pages on her clipboard and underneath all of her, assuming work papers, I see a stack of some magazines, probably ones she reads on her free time, she hands me one and I see a picture of Luke and I on the front cover. Someone must of snapped a pic of us. I read the title to myself 'Luke hits the shops with his supposedly new girlfriend. GO LUKE!'. No this can't be happening. I feel my heart start to pound.

"Well this magazine is wrong! I'm in love with Ashton. We've been together for almost a year now." I say to the lady trying to catch my breath.

"Oh. Well I guess that relationship is over." She says

"Excuse me?"

"Well you've been caught cheating on him then. You aren't Luke's new girlfriend you're his affair." She tells me.

"No! I'm not cheating on anyone!"

"It's okay sweetheart I'm not judging you. I mean look at Luke how could you not-"

"NO! I am not cheating!" I say. my head starts to spin and questions pop up into my head. How many people have seen this. Oh who am I kidding thousands probably. What if Ashton finds out about this. This will devastate him whether its truth or not. Becca notices me starting to lose my breath and she wraps her arms around me. I push them off.

"No don't touch me! I don't love Luke and I never will!" I shout. I turn to see Luke stop and look over to me and I see tears forming in his eyes. Shit. Out of all the things he could've heard. "Why would I cheat on the only person who's ever given a damn about me?!" I shout at Becca.

"I'm not sure. Maybe it's because you found someone who gives more of a damn." Becca says. I feel tears rushing down my face I grab the magazine from her and I rip it up and I see Ashton notice my tears and his smile becomes a frown but I look away and I run to the dressing room. When I get there I lean against the door and fall to the floor. How could this be happening? I haven't done anything wrong! Those fucking paparazzi! I feel the tears stream down my face. How is Ashton going to react? He's caught Luke and I talking multiple times and maybe he'll make a wrong connection. "FUCK!" I scream and throw my shoe at the wall. I hide my face in my knees. 'Why did I even agree to go shopping with Luke?' I think. What's his reaction going to be to all this. Is he going to be happy? Confused? And Becca! When I told her I wasn't dating Luke she didn't believe me. No ones going to believe me! This was a mess. What if Ashton breaks up with me? No. I can't even think about that. He'll believe me right? He has to. I take my head out of my knees and lean my head back against the door. I sit there crying for what seems like ages but turns out to be only 20 minutes. After that I'm all out of tears. I feel empty.

After staring at the wall for an hour and a half I hear a loud knock on the door.

"Dani?!" Ashton shouts, sounding very worried "Dani! babe! Please, open the door! Baby please! What's wrong?! Talk to me! Please! Dan come on!" He always did that. That's how I know when Ashton was angry, scared or worried, he always calls me Dan. I sniff and get up. I unlock the door and he bursts into the room immediately hugging me. He puts his hands on both my cheeks and sees my tears. He wipes them away "Babe what's wrong?!" I look down not wanting to tell him. I just wanted to keep my perfect relationship. I look back up at him and kiss him, passionately. Messily. He's still a little sweaty from the concert but I just needed to be reassured right now. My hands are tangled in his hair and his hands are roaming me back. "Wait." He tries removing his lips but I just pull him back.

"Just. I need this right now." I say inbetween breaths. He doesn't complain and brings his hand back to my waist. He leads me to the couch without leaving my lips and lies me down on it. I move my hands under his shirt, desperate for his contact.

"Hmmm" he moans into my lips. I quickly kiss my way down his neck earning a couple of additional moans. "Ok, Dani, stop." He pins my arms down on the couch. "Stop. You need to tell me what's wrong!" I look at him.

"They're lying! I swear they're lying!" I cry and he pulls me up into a sitting position and hugs me close. I bury my face in his chest and sob "They're lying. Please believe me." I sniff. "They're lying." He kisses my forehead and rocks me back and forth.

"Shhhhh. It's gonna be ok." He coos into my ear. We stay on that couch until I finally stop crying, Ashton not stopping to whisper comforting words in my ear. I sit there with my head in his chest still burried and I try and dry my tears with his shirt. He strokes my hair and I finally look up at him. He tucks the hair away from my face and kisses my forehead.

"Please tell me." He whispers. "I want to know you're okay." He says. I look down at the ground. I can't look at him when I tell him. I don't want to look at the hurt in his eyes.

"Ash you just have to know that none of it is true. And Luke-"

"Luke? What the hell did he do this time." Ashton says as he lets me go and stands to his feet.

"Nothing. Ash. Please just listen to me. The other day when Luke and I went to the dress shop I guess paparazzi took photos of us together. And one of the photos ended up on the front page and-" I choke. I couldn't say it. How could I possibly tell him.

"And now people think you're Luke's." Ashton finishes my sentence sadly. He sits down on the couch across the room.

"Ashto-"

"Just give me a second." He says quietly as he puts his head in his hands and runs his fingers through his hair frustratingly. I slowly sit up from the couch and I go over and sit next to him. I rest my head on his arched back and I wrap my arms around his torso. I can feel his chest going in and out as he breathes.

"Ashton are you angry?" I whisper making small circles into his back with my finger.

"No. It's not your fault. It's no ones fault. It's just some stupid magazine" He says as he raises his head up and looks at me. I knew he was just saying that to reassure me. I can always tell when he's lying because his eyes and hands become shaky and I can feel him tense up. I knew that he was angry at Luke and that he was in for it. But I didn't know what he thought about me. And that scares me.

"Are you sure?" I ask.

"Of course. Babe. Everything is going to be okay." He says as he kisses me. I kiss him back running my hands down his back. I scootch in closer to him and he grabs the bottom of my back and pulls me in tighter against his torso. He pulls away and he looks into my eyes. He smiles at me and he gives me one last kiss on the forehead. The other guys walk in suddenly into the dressing room.

"Is everything okay?" Calum asks.

"Of course everything is just fine Cal." Ashton says patting him on the back.

"Well let's pack up and head to the bus." Michael says as he runs over to his backpack. Luke is quiet and doesn't say anything as he leans against the doorway. I see Ashton walk over to him and whisper something in his ear but I don't hear what he said. He pats Luke on the back but something tells me it wasn't a happy pat like he gave Calum because Luke's face is still empty and sad. Ashton walks over to me and grabs my hand.

"Ready to get back on it babe?" Ashton says.

"No time for that Ashton! We have to get back on the bus!" Michael says.

"STOP MAKING EVERYTHING I SAY SEXUAL!" Ashton shouts and him and the other guys, except for Luke, giggle. I blush and smile at Ash. He wraps his arms around me and we leave the room and Calum switches of the lights before Luke comes out. I turn my head and look back and I see Luke slowly come out from the dark room and I seem him slam the door shut. He was mad. I needed to know what Ashton said to him. It definetly wasn't good. I decided to drop it for now but I would talk to Luke the next time we were alone together.


	12. Chapter 12

Ashton grabs my hand and a security guard helps us out of the building. I step into the bus quickly and the door closes behind me. I sit down on the couch and Ashton sits down next to me. He puts his hand on my leg and rubs his thumb on my thigh. I lean my head against his and breathe out deeply. He kisses me head.

"Are you two-" Calum asks but breaks off when Ashton shakes his head at him, telling him to give them a moment. The guys all leave to the bunks and leave us alone. I sniff into his shoulder.

"Maybe we should go to bed." He whispers to me.

"This isn't something that's just going to go away Ashton! People are going to think that I'm the 5sos slut! Cheating on one and jumping to the next!" I pull away and look him in the eye. "You don't understand what that's like! People will hate me! Even if we set things straight, there are still going to be people that think it was all set up by the media! People will always see me as some terrible person that sleeps around with famous people for money!" He looks down.

"I know it's not easy for you but how do you think I feel?" He slowly gets angry. "People think that the woman I love is dating my best friend. The woman. I love. I want the whole world to know that I love you. I want to scream it to the heavens yet now, the world thinks you belong to that idiot." He sits back on the couch and looks frustratingly out the window. We sit in silence for a moment.

"What did you say to Luke?" I look at him.

"It's not important," he says shaking his head. "Maybe we should just figure this tomorrow ok? I'm tired." He says. I'm still a mad and confused but I just want to relax and forget this for a couple of hours.

"Ok." I respond. He gets up and holds his hand out for me. I grab it and he helps me up. We walk into the bunks and see the other boys already in their beds. I grab my pjs and change in the bathroom. Once I walk out I see Ashton standing infront of me.

He pecks me on the lips. "I love you." He says half-heartedly.

I smile a little and reply. "I love you." He smiles and I pass him. That didn't feel right. I hop into my bed and hope to get some sleep.

After two hours I still can't fall asleep, my mind is too clustered. I decide to get up and go to the back room. I open the slider and who else would be there but Luke. I'm honestly too tired and upset to fight with him so I just drop down on the couch across from him. Neither of us say anything for a while until I finally build the courage to talk.

"Did you hear what I said backstage when you guys were performing." I ask him. He doesn't say anything for a while.

Then I hear a quiet shaky voice sneak its way to my ears. "Yes." I take a deep breath. That wasn't the answer I was hoping for.

"I know it's none of my business but what happened?" He asks you hesitantly. I raise myself up and lean my head back against the couch.

"No Luke actually it is your business. The paparazzi caught a picture of us together at the dress shop the other day and it got printed on a magazine with a headline that said we were dating." I say as I throw myself back down on the couch laying my arms across my stomach and propping my legs up.

I look over to Luke and I see him tensing up. "That explains alot." he says frowning while wiping his eye of a stray tear.

"Explains what?" I ask.

"Nothing. Just something Ashton whispered to me before we left the venue." he says.

"What did he say?" I ask. He doesn't say anything. "Tell me Luke." I say sternly.

"He said. 'It must be pretty fucking nice being Mr. Luke Hemmings. But then again why would I want to be petty and pathetic.' " Luke looks down at his hands and lays down the same way I am. I hear him sniff and I catch him wiping his cheek with his hand. I can't believe Ashton would say something like that. But then again I don't truly understand how he feels because he never tells me fucking anything.

"Luke I'm sorry." I whisper.

"No it's okay. I mean I'm pretty pathetic for loving someone who told a complete stranger that they would never love me back." He says with a choke in his voice.

"Luke. Don't."

"Don't what?" he asks.

"Stop saying that you love me. How could you love me? What is it about me?" I ask.

"I just do." He says as he turns his body to face the couch and so that his back is facing me. Then I remember what Luke was about to say in the dressing room before the other guys walked in after they got their hair done. When I told him it was never going to happen and then he said it almost did.

"Luke. What did you mean earlier tonight when you said that we almost happened?" I ask. Luke sits up and runs his hands through his hair and lets out a frustrated moan.

"I never should've said that" he says under his breath. "Nothing. It's not important. Just forget I ever said that." He says.

"But Luke-"

"It's a dumb story you don't want to know and I...I just...just let it go." He says stuttering.

"What are we going to do? About the photo?" I ask him.

"I have no idea. But we need to fix this. I don't want you getting hurt." he says. I smile because I know that Luke cares about me but I just wish it was a different type of caring. He lays back down on the couch and tosses himself so that he is facing the back of the couch again. After a while I hear small snores coming from his side of the couch and I know he's fallen asleep. I feel my eyes become heavy as welll. I'm worried that if I get up I'll lose my want to sleep. So I close my eyes and drift to sleep.

I wake up to the ground shaking beneath me. I panic momentarily and jolt up until I realize where I am. On a moving bus. I turn around and see Ashton sitting beside me with a shocked expression and with his hands in the air.

"I didn't do anything, I swear." He says. I smile a little and he puts his hands down.

"Sorry, I just forgot where I was for a moment." I laugh a little. I rub my eyes and yawn. "Where are we going?" I ask him.

"Um, Vegas I think."

"Oh. What time is it?" He looks down at his phone.

"11:27"

"Really? I can't believe I slept so long. Why didn't you wake me up?"

"You looked so peaceful, I didn't want to wake you up." He smiles and leans in to kiss me.

I kiss him momentarily. "Well, good morning then."

He chuckles. "Good morning." I'm quiet for a moment until he speaks up.

"Why are you on the couch anyway? Was the bunk not comfortable?" He asks, his voice full of genuine concern.

"No, the bunk was fine, I just couldn't sleep. I came back here hoping I could waste some time and ended up falling asleep." I leave out the whole conversation with Luke, I don't want to anger him.

"Oh, ok. Well next time you can't sleep just tell me and I'll stay up with you." He says smiling, and kisses me on the cheek, getting up. "I'm gonna get some food, do you want some?"

"Yeah." I realize how hungry I am. "I'm starving." He kisses my forehead again and simultaneously makes a 'hmmm' noise against it. He leaves and I decide to get changed. I go into the bunks and grab my bag. I pull out a pair of leggings and a sweatshirt since I'm not planning on leaving the bus anytime soon. I brush my hair and leave the bathroom and I run into Calum in the hallway. We awkwardly shuffle past one another and I walk towards the kitchen-thing.

"Hey Dani" Luke says from the table as Ashton rummages through the fridge.

"Hi" I say. Ashton takes his head out of the fridge and grabs a yogurt. He hands it to me and I smile saying "thank you." I sit down across from Luke as Ashton excuses himself to the bathroom.

"No funny business you two." he says jokingly but there's seriousness in his tone as well. He leaves and Luke immediately starts talking.

"How did you sleep?" He asks.

"Fine. I slept much longer than I thought I would." I chuckle a little. He smiles down at his plate and looks back up at me.

"That's good, I was pretty tired last night but I just couldn't seem to get myself to go to sleep. I guess my m-"

"Mind was too cluttered. Yeah, me too." I smile and he takes another bite of his food.

"You look pretty awake now." He says

"Mhmm." I say, take a spoonful of yogurt. "I guess talking to you must have lifted the weight off my shoulders. At least I got some of my questions answered." I say. He puts down his fork.

"Some?" he asks and I look at him.

"Yeah, you still haven't told me what you meant when you said we 'almost' happened. I'm still deadly curious about that. I mean I'd like to know if maybe things were different..."

"You'd be with me." He says half-heartedly. I shrug and he just looks kind of sad. "I don't want to think about what could have been, ok? It's not important." I scootch to the edge of my seat.

"Oh come on. Just tell me! I know you've been through a lot but I just want to know you didn't have 'dibs' and Ashton broke the code or whatever."

"The code?" He looks at me with humour in his eyes.

"Yeah. You know, the bro-code? It states: He who calls dibs,"

"Has dibs." We finish together. He laughs a little. "Quoting How I Met Your Mother I see." I shrug

"Hey, you gotta love it, right?" He smiles and shakes his head. I focus back on what I originally asked him. "So, what did you mean by 'almost'?" Luke starts to rub his hands together and his leg begins to shake moving the table up and down. He gets up and paces around nervously.

"Luke come on." I tell him as I begin to become annoyed with his fidgeting.

"No. I can't do it. I can't tell you." he says shaking his head. All that watching him fidget for nothing. "Why?"

"Because. It's so fucking stupid!" he says with a sudden frustration as tears threaten to flow down his face. He rushes out of the kitchen and through the hallway. Calum notices him and follows him. Calum grabs Luke by the shoulder and turns him around.

"What's wrong Luke? You can tell me." Calum says. Luke looks at me and his eyes are watery and red. Then he turns and walks into the backroom, Calum following, closing the doors behind him.


	13. Chapter 13

I jump from my seat and rush to the backroom door.

"What are you doing?" Ashton asks me. I freeze in my tracks.

"Oh nothing I...was..just...I was going to the backroom but I decided not to." I whisper.

He looks at me confused but he just smiles. "Why are you whispering?" he asks, mimicking my whisper.

"Because I like to whisper." I say, still whispering. The truth was I was whispering because I didn't want Calum and Luke to know I was listening in on their conversation.

"Okay well uuhhh..." he giggles, "Michael and I are going to eat some lunch in the kitchen do you want to join us?" he asks.

"No I'm not very hungry, I just ate. I'm just gonna relax for a few minutes." I say leaning up and kissing him. He kisses me back and walks off to the kitchen. I lean my body against the back door and listen in to Luke and Calum's conversation.

"Luke calm down. what's wrong?" I hear Calum say along with a couple of sniffs from Luke.

"I just feel like such an idiot!" I hear Luke say loudly.

"Why? You have to tell someone Luke. I hate seeing you so not yourself."

There are a few moments of silence before Luke begins to talk. I hear him choke on his tears with every word. "I just wanted to see Ashton happy. But I didn't know it would hurt like this." Luke says. He pauses and continues. "I saw her in the crowd. I saw her looking at me. And she was so gorgeous and beautiful. And..." Luke pauses again and after a bit continues. "And I thought I could find a way to talk to her. After the show I saw her leaving the arena, somewhat confused, in the lot. I was nervous but somehow this girl I'd never met before made me smile and I wanted to go for it. But... But then I heard Ashton." he says.

"You heard Ashton what?" Calum asks with concern in his voice.

"I heard him talking to Michael about her. I listened in on them talking and... I don't know, suddenly the idea of being with her made me feel guilty. The thought of getting to know her made me feel selfish as if I was going to take away happiness from Ashton and I didn't want that. I felt like seeing his happiness amounted over my own and that everything would be okay in the end." Luke says. I felt my heart sink. I don't know what to feel.

"Lu-" Calum begins but Luke cuts him off.

"It was fine at first. They weren't serious. How could I've imagined they'd end up here getting physical and saying I love you and me being this awful person. I made the mistake of letting myself fall in love with her as he did. I-" I hear Luke choke on his failed attempts to hide the fact that he's crying. "It just hurts. It hurts to love her." Then all I hear is crying. Oh god.

"Luke you have to tell Dani." Calum says. A bit to late for that Calum.

"No. I can't! I can't! Don't you see Calum! My happiness doesn't matter! What matters is them!" he shouts as if he was stating a fact. "It hurts but it's-"

"Luke you have to stop putting others ahead of yourself." Calum says.

I fall down to my knees and feel pain in my chest. I did this. I'm making him feel like this.

"Nothing I do will fix anything. I just have to love her in silence." Luke says.

"I promise I won't tell anyone. Just know I'm on your side Luke." Calum says as I hear footsteps coming towards the door. I quickly jump onto the bunk next to me and pretend to look occupied. Calum looks at me with frustration in his eyes. Not like he was mad at me, he's just mad about the situation I assume... right?

"Everything okay Cal?" Ashton shouts from the kitchen.

"Yeah everything's good!" Calum says forcing a smile on his and running to the kitchen. I wait until they're all looking away and open the door to the backroom. I see Luke sitting there with his head in his hands and tears dripping from his fingers. The tips of his blonde hair wet from tears.

"Luke?" I say with a choke in my voice. He looks up at me. His blue eyes seemed deeper, deeper from regret and frustration. "I can't believe you did that." I whisper.

"Wha-what?" He asks stuttering, clearly trying to play dumb.

I walk over to him and hug him tightly. At first he's just limp in my arms, but soon wraps his arms around me and balls his hands into fists in my sweater. "I'm so sorry." I whisper.

He snuggles his head into my neck and takes a deep breath. He's no longer crying but his face is still wet. "It's ok." He says, pulling away, wiping away a stray tear.

"No it's not. This entire time I've been mad at you because I thought you were going to destroy our relationship, but in reality I should be thanking you. You gave up your own happiness for Ashton." I pause and think a moment. "Why?"

He sniffs. "He wasn't going through a good time. People were saying things and I thought if he could find someone to talk to, he'd be happy."

I smile at him. "Thank you. And I know you probably regret it now but you saved him. You cared for him and I can never thank you enough. Thank you Luke." I say. I kiss him on the cheek and hug him again. I pull back and see his face has turned a bright red colour. I decide to ignore it for now. "This is good! Now we can tell Ashton and he doesn't have to be so rude about it all the time! You can go back to being best friends a-"

"No. We can't tell him." Luke says sternly.

I stare at him, confused. "Why not? If you tell him then you'll be friends again, isn't that what you want?"

"Yes, but I'd rather have you." He says quietly.

I sigh and look down. "Look, Luke we've been over this, I will never leave-"

"Me." A voice says behind me. I turn around and see Ashton at the door. His eyebrows are furrowed as he's assessing the situation. "Hi." He says emotionlessly, walking towards me and kissing me quickly before turning his attention back to Luke. "Are you ok Luke? You look like you were crying." Ashton says without any real emotion. He's trying though, so that does mean something. "What are you two doing?" He asks me.

"Oh, we were just talking. Luke actually has som-"

"We were talking about how to fix the magazine issue." Luke says, smoothly changing the subject.

"Oh, then why are you crying?" Ashton asks. Luke struggles to find the right words and looks at me.

I sigh. "He's still a little frustrated about it. He feels bad that he's ruined this up and he's afraid you two will stop being friends." I cut in for him. He nods a thank you and Ashton lifts an eyebrow suspiciously.

"Well it's not your fault mate." He says patting Luke's shoulder. "Well, not completely anyway." Ashton sits down next to me and puts his arm around my shoulder. "So, did you two come up with anything?" Luke and I don't say anything. "Come one you two have been in here for who knows how long talking about god knows what and you're telling me you haven't thought of anything?" Ashton says with humour in his voice.

"Our interview." Luke mumbles.

"Yeah your interview!" I repeat. Good idea Luke. "Don't you guys have one in Vegas right before the show?" I ask.

"Well yeah but-"

"So we'll find a way to address the issue in the interview. Chances are the interviewer already knows, and we'll turn things around there." Luke says.

Ashton smiles, knowing that we can solve this.

"Sounds like a plan." I say as I get up from the couch. Calum and Michael come in and sit around Luke as they begin to chat. Ashton leads us out of the room. The two of us then sit down on a bunk.

"I'm happy we found a solution but what were you two really talking about?" Ashton asks, his hazel eyes piercing through me. We always knew when the other one was lying. It was nice when he was the one lying, well it wasn't nice when he was lying but when I could catch him in the lie. But it's frustrating as ever when I am the one caught lying.

"I think it's best if Luke tells you himself." I say resting my head on his shoulder. He runs his fingers through my hair.

"Well then I'll go ask him" Ashton says as he starts to stand up. I quickly push him down.

"No. Luke will tell you when he's ready. It's better that way." I say as he gives me a glance. "Trust me." I say as I grab his cheeks and I pull him in to peck him on the lips, hopefully shutting him up. He grabs the back of my head and keeps me in longer than I was expecting. He puts his hands on my legs and starts moving them up my thighs. I just grab the back of his shirt and ball it in my hands. I'm not going to say I wasn't enjoying this.

He lets out a moan of happiness and for the first time since I got on the bus I knew everything was going to turn out okay. I'm not sure what Ashton will think when Luke tells him the truth. I'm not even sure if Luke will ever tell him, but that's in the future, and I am living in the moment. I hear laughter coming from the backroom and I smile underneath Ashton's kiss at the sound of it.

"I love you so much." I tell him.

"I love you to babe." He says as he places a final kiss on my forehead. He takes my hands into his and looks at me. "Will you come in with us?" He asks.

"Come in with you where?" I ask him back.

"Into the interview, just so I can see you. So I can see your happy face when we set this straight." He pauses and smiles at me. "And so I can kiss you because I don't think I can wait a whole interview to do that." Ashton smiles at me and I blush.

"Of course. I'll be with you no matter what. Everyday. Every step of the way." I giggle because of the rhyme. I wrap my arms around him and pull him in for a peck. We both look out the window to see the radio station in the distance. My hands become sweaty, but I know this is going to work.

Luke comes out of the backroom and places his hand on Ashton's shoulder. Luke and Ash look at each other with serious, yet friendly faces. "You ready?" Luke asks him. Ashton nods and gives my hand a squeeze as the bus comes to a stop.


	14. Chapter 14

I throw on a pair of jeans and grab Ashton's hand. The other boys leave before us and make their way through the crowd. Ok. Breathe. I've done this before. No need to worry. I'm fine. It's going to be fine.

We leave the bus and walk towards the entrance of the radio station. This time wasn't as bad since the fans were held back by a barrier. The screams were still incredibly loud though. We make it into the building rather quickly since the guys didn't stop for too many people.

"That wasn't too bad." I say once we get inside. Ashton laughs.

"You'll get used to it, don't worry." Michael reassures me.

"Do you not like the fans? Are they rude? Did one of them say something to you?" Calum asks sweetly.

"No, it's not that. I just don't feel comfortable being surrounded by so many people." I explain. Ashton gives my hand a reassuring squeeze as a lady leads us into a room with a little white couch.

He kisses me quickly. "You can wait here and watch us from behind the camera."

"Ok." I smile. He drops my hand and goes to sit down with the other boys. A man comes in, about 30-35 years old and sits in the chair next to the couch. He introduces himself as "Joey Plazcon" and shakes all the guys' hands.

"Ok, are you boys ready for this?" He asks. "Yeah, let's do this!" Calum says.

The cameraman gives them a thumbs up, signaling they had started rolling. "Hello my name is Joey Plazcon on 103.5 Hitz and today I am joined by," he points to every boy as he says their name, "Calum, Michael, Ashton and Luke, also known as 5 seconds of summer!" He finishes enthusiastically and the boys cheer. "So, welcome to Vegas boys."

"Thank you, we're very excited to be here. Although we can't really do much." Calum says, laughing a little. The other guys laugh too and the interviewer cuts in.

"Oh that's right! Are any of you 21?"

Ashton raises his hand. "I am, but they don't let us do anything. We don't have a lot of time to go out."

"And he wouldn't leave without us, right Ashton?" Michael asks.

"I would never leave you Michael." Ashton says giving him an over exaggerated smile and Michael pretends to blush.

The interview is filled with the same old questions, 'What's tour like?', 'What's your hair going to be next, Michael?', 'Where's your favourite place to tour?', 'Do you still keep in contact with the 1D lads?', 'What's it like having your own headline tour?', and finally they got to the 'most important' question.

"So, boys. As I'm sure every girl at home wants to know, who's single and who's taken?" The interviewer asks.

"I'm single" Michael says, raising his hand and winking at the camera.

"Me too." Calum says.

The interviewer looks at Luke and Ashton. "And you have a girlfriend right Luke?"

I can see Ashton tense up in his seat as he cuts in. "No, I'm the one with the girlfriend actually." He says politely correcting him.

"Oh, I thought I saw a picture of Luke and this girl on a magazine." The interviewer says, genuinely confused. _'This girl'_ wow, thanks Joey. My hands begin to sweat and I start to rub them on my jeans. This is it.

"No," Luke cuts in. "I was actually out with Dani, Ashton's girlfriend, to get a present for him. She didn't know what to get him so she asked me to help. While we were walking around, the paparazzi must have shot a picture and made a quick assumption." He smoothly glosses over the truth of why we were shopping but he surprised both me and Ashton with his quick cover-up. I didn't think he'd be able to deny his relationship with me like that.

"Oh, well that must have been frustrating to see that on the magazine, right Ashton?" The interviewer asks.

"No, not really. I knew it wasn't true. Dani and I have been dating for months. It was a little worrying that people who know that we're dating would see it and think that she was cheating on me, which she would never do. Dani is sweet and funny and perfect and I didn't—don't want anyone to think any less of her." Ashton says finishing the last sentence while looking straight at me and giving me a small smile.

Luke looks down and nods while Ashton's speaking.

"Well, that definitely clears a couple of things up! Thank you 5 seconds of summer for joining us today,"

"Yeah."

"No problem."

"Thank you."

"Any time."

"and I wish you good luck for your show tonight!" The interviewer finishes.

The cameraman signals that the interview had ended allowing Ashton to get up off the couch and come hug me. "Thank you so much for saying that." I whisper.

"I only tell the truth." He replies kissing me.

***Three hours later***

After the interview the bus was quiet for a while. The guys were relaxing, listening to music or chatting quietly. It was long after that that we finally reached the venue. This venue was slightly different from the venue in San Francisco. The arena was slightly bigger and backstage was definitely fancier, Las Vegas sure knows how to make bands and their fans feel special.

I lay on the couch with my head in Ashton's lap as he's listening to music, tapping to the beat with his hands against my legs. I look up at him and smile, causing him to smile back. He then starts to mouth the words to whatever he's singing to me. I can't quite make out what he is saying at first, but then I realize he's mouthing the words to 'Hey There Delilah' by the Plain White T's. I blush.

"Time Square can't shine as bright as you, I swear it's true." He sings out loud. I lean up and pull him in for a kiss. His hands slip under my back as he pulls me up and moves his hands up my back to support me. I scoot myself onto his lap and throw one arm around his shoulder and the other around his waist. I move my hand into his hair and twirl my fingers around. He squeezes my thigh and rubs it gently.

"I'm so relieved." I say taking in a deep breath.

"Me too." He says back as he starts to massage my shoulders. He kisses me on the forehead quickly. "Okay, well I gotta go get ready. The show starts in 20 minutes." Ashton says as he carefully lifts me off his lap and places me beside him. I get up and follow him so that I can take my place backstage again. We walk down a long corridor until we reach the sides of the stage.

I look out and see thousands of fans seated outside singing along to the playlist playing over the speakers.

"Hey." Someone says from behind me. I turn around and see Luke. I haven't said anything to him since the interview.

He walks up and stands beside me. I lean over and give him a hug. "Thank you Luke" I say softly. He smiles at me.

"Oi! Luke! Come here!" Calum shouts. Without saying anything else, Luke runs off to Calum. I slowly make my way to the very back of the stage where the guys normally entre the stage.

I run up to Ashton and kiss him on the cheek seconds before he gets on stage. "Break a leg" I say winking at him.

"Did you just wink at me?" He says jokingly, winking back at me.

I laugh "I love you." I say kissing him. The lights go down and I run to the side of the stage so that I can see them come out. Ashton starts hitting his drums a couple times, making the crowd go crazy. Luke then strums the first chord of the concert and I swear I went deaf then and there from the screams.

After a while, I decide to go lay down in the back room since I hadn't gotten a lot of peaceful sleep in the past two days due to all the commotion between Luke, Ashton and I.

***After the concert***

With my eyes still closed, I feel a dip in the couch. A hand then starts rubbing my leg softly.

"Look guys, she fell asleep." Ashton whispers to the other boys. He brushes my hair out of my face as I try to keep my eyes closed, pretending to sleep. The guys stay in the back room for a couple minutes, allowing me to listen to their conversation. I'm not snooping, I'm just curious.

They talk about the concert and crack some jokes. Nothing too unusual. It was nice to hear Luke talk to Ash and hear them both laughing. Before long, Ashton gets up from the couch.

"Okay, lets head to the van." Michael whispers.

"I can't wait to sleep in an actual bed tonight." Calum says as the boys agree.

"So, since Ashton's sharing a room with Dani, how are we gonna split up without someone being alone?" Michael asks.

"I can sleep alone it's fine." Luke whispers.

"No. All three of us can share a room. We can always ask the hotel people to bring in an extra bed." Calum replies. The guys all agree.

"Babe?" Ashton whispers as he lightly shakes me.

"Yeah?" I say sleepily.

"We have to get in the van now and go to the hotel." He whispers. I prop myself up and grab his hand before we start walking out the room, following the other guys. "Did you sleep well?" Ashton asks.

"Yeah. I'm sorry I went back here to sleep. I just haven't slept well in the past few days and-" Ashton cuts me off by grabbing my cheeks and pecking my lips. I smile.

"Well you'll just have to make it up to me back at the hotel." He says cheekily, leaning and kissing me again.

I blush and raise an eyebrow. "Oh really? And how will I do that?" I ask innocently.

He just smiles. "You'll find a way." He then winks at me and wraps his arm around my waist as we both hop into the van.


	15. Chapter 15

During the entire car ride Ashton keeps his hand on my upper thigh, occasionally kissing my cheek or ear, whispering random things into it. We get to the hotel and he gives my thigh a final squeeze before we get out of the car. I blush and he grabs my hand, pulling me out of the car rather quickly.

The guys grab their bags as Ashton quickly goes to the reception and gets the key-card from the woman. He pulls me to the elevator and presses the 'up' button. We wait patiently as he wraps his hand around my waist and pulls me to his side.

He leans in and whispers into my ear. "I'm so glad we have the room to ourselves tonight." I blush and turn to him, wrapping my arms around his waist and look at him.

"Me too." I smile at him as he leans down and kisses me slowly.

We're both smiling into the kiss until Michael shouts from behind us. "Get a room!"

Ashton turns to him as the elevator opens and pulls me in.

"Already on it." He shouts back to the 3, well 2, chuckling boys. I giggle and the door closes. He puts the key-card into the slot and presses the '18' button. He then pulls me towards him by the hips. We kiss again and I rest my hands on his neck. He slowly walks me to the wall of the elevator and leans me against it. He walks me until my back is firmly up against the wall and I can't go any further. He moves his hands under my shirt, onto my bare skin and roams my back and hips. The kiss becomes more passionate and he starts to move his lips down to my neck. I lean my head back and hear the 'ding' from the elevator. He groans against my skin and pushes back against the wall, freeing me from my trap.

"What? You didn't expect to do it in here did you?" I ask him, mocking him slightly. He rolls his eyes at me and grabs my hand as we walk out of the elevator.

We search for our room and find it at the end of the hall. "Good, no distractions." He says as he inserts the key-card into the slot. I smile knowing he's right and we walk into the room.

He drops his bag by the door as I walk to the queen-size bed in the room. I jump on it with and laugh as I bounce and I lay down. He walks towards the bed and leans against the wall staring at me. I sit up and look at the boy in front of me. "It's so nice having a proper bed again. Don't get me wrong, the bus is great and all but there's something nice about having a giant thing to yourself and not being crammed up into one tiny space." He raises his eyebrows and crosses his arms.

"All to yourself?"

"Well..." I smile at him.

"So you want to sleep all alone?" He says slowly walking towards the bed.

"Hmmmm..." I say, pretending to think about it. He crawls on top of me and looks me in the eyes.

"Do I need to convince you?"

"I don't know, maybe."

"Well, let see. When you sleep alone, you have lots of space to yourself."

"That's true."

"But, you might get cold."

"Hmmm, good point. And what else?" I ask cheekily. He smirks and says,

"Well, lets say you're sleeping with someone. Hypothetically, lets just say me for example."

"Mmhmm." I say, tangling my fingers in his hair, just playing with the tips.

"Hypothetically, I could keep you warm, and cuddle you..."

"And..." I say as his hazel eyes glance to my lips.

"...And, I can do this," he leans down and pecks my lips. "or this," my jaw, "or this," my neck. He keeps placing kisses around my face and moves his hands up and down my sides. He finally says "but most importantly, this." and attacks my lips. I smile and immediately kiss him back, pulling him closer by his hair. His hands move under my shirt again and this time there's no holding back. I tug at the hem of his shirt and he takes the hint and pulls it off, only momentarily leaving my lips. His hands go back to my sides and he pulls my shirt up a little. I pull it up all the way and throw it across the room. He smiles and reattaches his lips to mine. I wrap my legs around his back and pull him closer, if that was possible. He moans a little and slips his tongue into my mouth, receiving a moan back from me. My hands are pressed to his back, slightly pressing my nails into it, encouraging him. His hands are all over my body. My hips, sides, back, stomach, thighs, everywhere. He grabs my thighs and holds them tightly as I keep them around his back. His lips move quickly down my neck and to my stomach, kissing me on my belly button, causing me to shiver. I'm out of breath but I can't stop. I don't. He kisses the button of my jeans lightly and looks up at me, asking for my approval to continue. I smile a little and he brings his hands up to unbutton them. I slip them off, a little awkwardly because its nearly impossible to take of skinny jeans seductively, and he throws them on the floor. He comes back up to my mouth and kisses me full of passion.

"I love you, so freaking much." He says breathlessly against my mouth.

I smile. "You're just saying that because I'm lying here in my bra and underwear." Of course I'm joking but I just want to see his reaction.

"What! No! Of course not! I love you because you are sweet, funny, beautiful—"

"I'm just kidding, I love you too."

His face relaxes and he smiles. "Fuck you."

"That's the plan isn't it?" I smirk. He looks down at me and nods, immediately re-connecting our lips. His hands travel down my body and stop at my hips. He leaves my mouth and leaves light kisses on my knees, slowly working his way up.

Before he gets to close I suck in some air and hear him whisper "Yes."

Afterwards, Ash roles me over on my back so that his bare torso is leaning up against mine. He kisses me lightly on the forehead and rolls over on his back so that he can wrap his arms around me, pulling me in close. I take in a deep breath and rest my head in the crink of his neck.

"You worn out babe?" Ashton says giggling. I look up at him and give him a grin.

"No. If anyone should be worn out it's you. You just did a show." I say.

"I'm wide awake." he replies kissing my cheek. There is a knock at the door and Ash gets up and throws on some clothes lying on the top layer of his opened suitcase. I hear another knock at the door.

"Ashton!" Calum says loudly through the door.

"Coming!" Ashton says back. I pull the sheets over my body and I sit up against the headboard. Ash answers the door and Calum walks right in and sits down at the chair next to the television. He looks at me and then at Ashton and smiles. I look over at Ash and see the annoyance in his face.

"Soooo what are you guys doin'?" Calum asks cheekily. Ashton says nothing for a while and there is an awkward silence in the room. I decide to speak up,

"We were just-"

"None of your business. What are you doing here Cal?" Ashton says running his fingers through his curls in frustration.

"The other guys fell asleep and I'm not tired so I thought you guys would be up and you are so-"

"So?" Ashton asks.

"So, you are up and I just thought maybe we could chill for a bit." Calum says smiling. Ashton turns and looks at me. I nod my head at him and smile.

"Ashton will you go to the vending machine down the hall and get me some water please?" I ask shyly.

"Of course babe." Ashton says and he turns and looks at Calum "No funky business." Ash says smiling.

"Don't worry. My legs are crossed." Calum says crossing his legs and throwing his hands up in the air. Ash and I both chuckle and Ashton leaves the room.

After he leaves I realize I am stuck under the covers, with no clothes, and Calum sitting in the room. My face becomes hot and I can feel myself becoming red.

"Ummm Calum?" I say quietly. He looks up from his phone

"Yeah?" he says cheerfully.

"Ummm... I- umm... well here's the thing, I'm not really wearing-"

"Oh!" Calum says cutting me off. He scratches the back of his neck.

"Yeah... So could you hand me my pj's from my suitcase?" I ask.

"Yeah." Calum walks over to my suitcase and unzips it. He starts pulling out clothes trying to find my pj's. I cross my fingers he doesn't find my bras.

"Listen about Luke-" He starts

"Calum I don't want to talk about it. Things are settled and I don't want to start up more trouble." I say.

"It's gonna take alot more than some interview to settle things-"

"Calum."

"I'm on Luke's side. Someone has to be. I want to see Ash happy but I don't want to see Luke sad." Calum says as he gets up and hands me an oversized shirt and pj shorts. "I'm sorry. I just had to say my part." Calum says.

"It's okay, I understand you care about him alot and I care about him too-" I stop talking when I hear the loud slams of footsteps running down the hallway. Then suddenly Ashton crashes his way into the room.

"Wait! Dani I'm sorry. I-" he takes a deep breath inbetween his sentence, "you're not wearing-" He stops. "any-" he breathes again. "clothes." Calum and I start to laugh at Ash. He just now realized I wasn't wearing any clothes before he left me in a room alone with Calum? I smile to myself. At least he remembered and cared enough to come back. I see Ashton hunched over with his hands on his knees and his head facing the floor. I see his back move up and down with every breath he takes.

"Well I guess our rendezvous will have to be postponed Daniella. Your boyfriend almost caught us in the act." Calum says winking at me.

"Shutup Calum." Ashton says still out of breath and giggling.

"How could you leave me all alone in this room naked with another man!" I yell at him jokingly. Ashton lifts up from his position and walks over to me.

"Hey you wanted the water babe." Ashton says looking at Calum smiling.

"And where is my water?" I ask raising an eyebrow.

"Oh. Well, I didn't really get you any because on my way down I realized that you were ummm... well you know, so I turned around and ran as fast as I could back up here." Ashton says rubbing the back of his neck.

"So you're telling me you left me all alone and you didn't even get me my water?" I say smiling.

"I'm sorry babe. How could I ever make this right again?" Ashton says leaning towards me.

"I know." I say as I pull him in and kiss him. He props me up and I hold tight to the sheets so that they don't come down. He moves his hands onto my back and I wrap my one free hand around him.

"Okay then. This was great. I'm happy to see you guys have an active sexual life now. That's always good for a relationship. So I'm sure Luke and Michael are feeling lonely so I'm just gonna set your pj's here and I'm gonna go." Calum says awkwardly as he places my clothes on the armrest of the chair and he backs up to leave the room. Right before he leaves Calum whispers "Stop fooling around and get some sleep." Without looking Ashton grabs a pillow and throws it at the door and Calum closes it right on time to avoid it. I hear his laughter from outside and I hear him walk away.

"Idiots. Every single one of them." Ashton says getting up from the bed and handing me my pj's.

"Then why do you hang out with them?" I say laughing.

"Eh. We're kind of in a band together. So I kinda have to. Plus they would be lost without me and to be honest I'd be lost without them." Ashton says smiling as he takes his shirt off over his head and he lifts the covers and gets into bed. I put on the shirt and I throw on a pair of underwear and I crawl into bed next to him. He lies down and I rest my head against his chest and I feel his heart beating.

"Would you be lost without me?" I say looking up at him.

"It's like this one shitty band once said babe. Without you I'm a lost boy." He says as he kisses me on the forehead. I blush and I move my head up and kiss his lips.

"I think I know that band. Yeah I think the love of my life is in that band." I say kissing him on the cheek. I see his smile grow and his face become red. I turn so that my back is against his bare chest and he wraps his arm around me, holding me close. He rests his head on the back of my neck so that I can feel his steady breaths on the back of my ears and his curls tickle my skin.

"I love you." Ashton says as he kisses the back of my head. We don't say anything for a long while until we both drift off to sleep.


	16. Chapter 16

I wake up with an arm wrapped around me. I smile and turn around slowly so that I'm facing him. He's still sleeping, then again, he did have a show last night and he was up very late with me. I blush remembering the blissful night yesterday.

My hands are still entwined with his and I start to play with his long fingers. I watch him breathe in, out. In, out. His shoulders were bare and I could see his eyelashes flutter as I moved my free hand around his neck. His mouth twitches. So he was awake. I smile and decide to mess with him a little. He was trying to fool me but I could see right through him.

I slowly remove his hand from mine and wrap both hands around his waist, locking them around his back. He didn't move. I move my hands up and down his sides, hoping to get some kind I reaction out of him. Still nothing. I tried the only other thing that I could think of and lean in, trying to kiss him. Before I reach his lips, his hands quickly jump up to my cheeks and pull my face towards his. I smile, of course I knew he was awake but it was still cute. He was still cute.

He moves his hands to my waist and pulls me towards him, literally making my entire body scoot across the bed as I wrap my legs around his. I can feel him smiling and I know this is perfect, hopefully it'll stay that way.

My hands have already moved to their usual spot around his neck. We're both smiling like idiots to a point where we're barely even kissing.

"Stop smiling." He mumbles against my lips, barely being able to say it without laughing. I giggle and he leaves baby kisses on my lips since neither of us can seem to kiss properly at the moment. He kisses my lips one final time, lingering a little bit and pulls his head back a little, opening his eyes.

"Good morning Mr. 'I'm still sleeping'." I say, teasing him.

"Well, it lead to a great good morning kiss don't you think?" He replies, smiling at me with a cheeky grin. I blush as he pulls me in again, allowing me to rest my head on his shoulders.

"So, you have a day off. What are you thinking of doing with it?" I ask.

I can feel him take a deep breath in before he speaks. "Part of me really wants to just stay in bed all day with you." He kisses my head.

I look up at him and smile. "That doesn't sound too bad."

He leans down and kisses me. I rest my head back on his chest as he lies on his back. I'm silent for a moment. Completely silent.

Suddenly there's a knock at the door.

"Hello? Is everyone fully dressed in there?" I hear the door open and turn to see Calum standing there with his hands over his eyes.

Ashton rolls his eyes and smiles. "To an extent yes, but that can change at any moment." My face turns red hot and I can feel him lightly laughing at my reaction behind me.

Calum removes his hands from his eyes and sees us lying in bed. "Ew, you guys are such a couple."

"Get over it Calum. What do you want?" Ash says, clearly annoyed at him for ruining the moment.

"And how did you get in here?" I add, confused.

"Ok, first, The receptionist gave me an extra key to your room and since you guys were pretty busy last night I figured you wouldn't be at it in the morning as well." He pauses looking at me. "Oh, no offense to you Daniella. I'm pretty sure you'd be fine but we both know that Ashton's a little down in that department.-"

"Bro!" Ashton shouts raising his hands up.

"Hey, it's nothing to be ashamed of. You're just not an endurance man."

"-Ok, STOP! That's my girlfriend you're talking about! Now, what did you come here for?" Ashton asks. I get a little small at his mention of last night... This is awkward.

"Ok, the guys and I are going out today and we wanted to know if you guys wanted to come with?" Ashton sighs and looks at me. We were both looking forward to having a relaxed day in the hotel. I nod at him, I didn't want to steal him from his friends. Plus, I do need to check up with Luke, he's been pretty quiet since the interview.

"Ok, we'll go. When did you guys want to leave?" Ashton asks.

"In an hour or so, so that's not enough time for you guys to-"

"Oh my god Calum leave!" Ashton shouts at him. Calum jumps a little and laughs at Ashton's reaction. He was just trying to stir him up.

"Ok, I'll leave you two alone to get ready and shower and stuff." Calum winks at us and leaves the room.

Ashton throws back his head in frustration. He groans and turns his head towards me. "Why are we going again? We could be perfectly cozy right here in bed." He whines at me, almost like a young boy to his mom.

I turn to him. "Because, you can't just ditch your friends for me. Now that I'm on tour with you guys you need to make sure you don't forget about them. I mean, I know I'm amazing," I flip my hair, "but you can't just leave them out of the loop. Especially Luke," his body tenses up at his name. "You need to make sure he knows that you guys are ok, ok?" He relaxes a little and nods.

"Yes Ma'am" he salutes me and leans over me pushing me onto my back. He just kind of drops onto me with all of his weight and awkwardly cuddles me by snuggling his head into the crook of my neck.

"No! Ash!" I whine.

"What?" He asks all innocently. "I'm just hugging you."

"Ugh. But I need to take a shower!" I remind him.

"Maybe I can join you, you know, save water." He says into my neck.

I feel my face go red. "Umm..."

He chuckles and lifts his head from my neck. "I made you uncomfortable." He smiles cheekily. I hit him and look away awkwardly. He laughs again and kisses my cheek. "Don't worry babe, you can shower in peace." He gets off of me and lets me out of bed, before I close the door to the bathroom I hear him call after me. "But don't take too long or I really will need to join you." I can practically hear the smirk in his voice, cheeky bastard.

After I get out of the shower I do my usual routine. Brush my hair, wash my face, brush my teeth. I wrap a towel around myself and leave the bathroom. Once I get out, I see Ashton sitting on the bed, smirking at me.

"Really?" I ask.

"What can't a guy sit in front of a door and wait for his girlfriend to come out of the bathroom without it being creepy?" Ashton says jokingly. All I do is smile at him as he walks up to me. He puts his arms on my bare shoulders and kisses me on the forehead. "My turn." He says smiling as he walks into the bathroom and closes the door behind him.

Through the door and the sound of water hitting the shower floor, Ashton shouts out to me. "And even though I was denied an invitation into your shower. My shower party still has room for one more."

I shake my head and smile to myself. "I'm sorry, I'm tired from my shower party. Maybe I'll R.S.V.P. to the next one." I say laughing.

"You're tired? Babe what do you do in the shower?" Ashton says excitedly. Dirty minded boy.

"Whatever just hurry up! The guys are waiting for us downstairs." I say as I go into the closet and get dressed. I look through my suitcase and pull out all my clothes so that I can lay them down in a line along the closet wall. I was very indecisive, as usual, and was unsure about what to wear. I scan my 'maybe too big' pile of clothes and I decide just to wear a t-shirt and some skinny jeans.

After I get changed I hear a faint voice coming from the shower. I smile at myself and I realize that Ashton's singing. I try to keep quiet so that I can listen to him.

"Torn in two! And I know I shouldn't tell you but I just can't stop thinking of youuuuu!" He yelps out, clearly not trying to sound good. I let out a small laugh but immediately cover it up. I quickly go and sit down on the bed as I hear the shower being turned off. I hear some shuffling around and then the bathroom door opens.

I blush as I see him standing there with just his black skinny jeans on as he puts one hand on the frame of the door and smirks at me. Sometimes I forget how attractive he is. I mean I know he's attractive but there are moments when I look at him and I just feel overwhelmed with how beautiful he was inside and out.

"Ashton what do you think about in the shower?" I ask him, making a reference to his singing.

"What do you mean?" he asks puzzled.

"I mean, you know I shouldn't tell you but I just can't stop thinking of you." I say smiling as his face goes red.

"You heard me, huh?" he asks as he comes and lies face up on the bed with his legs hanging off the edge.

"It's true though. You know I'll never stop thinking of you." he says as he grabs my waist and pulls me on top of him.

"Ashton!" I shout, giggling. He grabs my cheeks and kisses me as he pulls my hair behind my ears. I start smiling and he smiles back.

"Okay, come on the guys are waiting Ash. Put a shirt on and lets go." I say as I try to get up from off of him but he keeps his hands locked against my back, holding me down against his chest.

"You're asking me to put a shirt on? That's not what you were saying last night."

"Ashton come on seriously." I says giggling. I'm not very good at this 'seriously' thing.

"Fine." He says as he kisses me and leans up, allowing me to jump up off of him. He throws on a band shirt, as usual, and grabs my purse, his phone and then my hand as we both walk down the hall to the elevator to meet the guys in the lobby.

As the elevator door opens, I see the guys sitting down on the couch. Calum's talking to Luke and Michael is looking at his phone.

"Ready boys?" Ashton says and I see all three of their heads pop up like meerkats.

"Finally we're starving!" Michael says as he jumps up.

"Let's go then come on!" Calum says. Luke doesn't say anything at all, he just lifts himself up from the couch quietly and follows everyone out the door. Ashton squeezes my hand as I follow the guys out of the hotel. It was an okay day outside, it was windy and the clouds were out but at least it was still warm. After a few minutes of walking we all reach this cute little cafe/restaurant.

"Hi, we had a table for 5 under the name Calum" Calum tells the waitress.

"Right this way please." She says as she grabs 5 menus and leads us to our table in the back of the room.

"Is this place any good Calum?" Ashton asks.

"I heard it is supposed to have the best waffles in Vegas." Calum replies back. I sit down in between Cal and Ash while Luke sits directly across from me next to Michael.

"Mmm waffles sound delicious." I say as I lick my lips and I dive into the menu. Looking at all the varieties of waffles made me very enthusiastic about the day.

"Oh my gosh! They have s'more waffles! And," I gasp placing my hand on Ashton's shoulder "they have nutella filled waffles!" I say very exitedly. Asthon giggles and I catch Luke blushing as he smiles at me.

"You are quite the food enthusiast aren't you Daniella?" Michael asks giggling.

"Well all I've really eaten in the past 3 days is salad, a pudding cup, and some fast food so yes, I am very enthusiastic about breakfast this morning. But I mean come on how could you not be? Look at the endless possibilities!" I say as I hold up my menu in the air.

After a few minutes everyone decides on what they are going to eat. "I'm just gonna stay classical and get regular buttermilk waffles." Calum says,

"I'm gonna get the strawberry with chocolate chips!" Michael exclaims.

"Well I've decided that cinnamon one looks amazing. So obviously I'm getting that one. What about you babe?" Ashton says as he turns and looks at me.

"I think I'm gonna get the nutella filled one with berries on top." I say smiling back at him. "Luke what are you gonna eat?" I ask. "Umm I'm not really that hungry I might just get eggs and toast." Luke says looking down at his menu.

"Boring!" Calum says laughing.

"Hey if Luke wants toast and eggs let him have toast and eggs." I say as I smile at Luke but don't receive one in return.

"Okay if Luke wants to be an average joe and eat toast for breakfast I guess that's okay." Michael says teasing him.

"Whatever." Luke says finally cracking a laugh. "I'm proud of my order. Plus I'm watching my figure." Luke says as he rubs his tummy. Everyone at the table laughs and smiles at him. I look over to Calum as he looks at me and I can tell that he's happy that Luke is smiling, even if it's just momentarily. The waitress comes and takes everyones order and within a few minutes, she brings out all of our food.

"Oh my god. These waffles are huge!" I exclaim.

"Think you can handle the size of 'em babe?" Ashton says winking at me.

"Probably not I mean she is dating you so she is used to smaller portions." Calum says. I become bright red. It was funny but I couldn't believe he just said that.

"Okay can we please stop with the sexual jokes. They're getting kind of old." Ashton says clearly irritated as he puts his hand on my thigh and I can feel him tense up.

"We're sorry Ash, it's just so hard not to I mean you guys are always so couply. We feel like it's our part as your best friends to annoy you about your relationship." Michael says taking a big bite out of his waffle.

Suddenly Luke gets up from the table. "I need some fresh air." Luke says as he walks off. I knew Luke was uncomfortable about everything. Calum was right, even though the interview fixed the magazine mess, it didn't fix Luke. And these jokes the other guys make about Ash and I make Luke feel awful. I wish I could go talk to him but every time I tried it never ended well. I realise now I should just give him some space.

"I'm gonna go out with him. I'll be right back." Calum says as he puts his napkin down next to his plate and follows Luke out of the restaurant. I look up at Ashton and I can tell he is feeling tense about the situation.

"Why would you need fresh air when you have the amazing scent of waffles all around you?" I say, trying to break the awkwardness. Ash smiles and he pulls me in and kisses me on the cheek.

"Then again he was smelling toast not waffles." Ashton says causing me to smile and laugh. Michael tries to laugh but can't because his face is stuffed with waffles. He swallows and then bursts out into a fit of giggles.

"You guys are funny. You should start a comedy show together." Michael says sarcastically.

"We discussed that but Ash turned it down. He said we were just too funny and that we might burst people's guts if they came to our show." I say making a pouty face.

"It's true. I'm sorry babe I'm all about safety." Ashton says smiling at me.

"That's good that you're all about safety considering you two have-"

"If you finish that sentence I will end you." Ashton says jokingly pointing his knife at Michael. Michael throws his hands in the air.

"Alright alright I'm sorry." He pleads. "So what are you guys' plans for after breakfast?" Michael asks.

"I think Dani and-"

"Ashton wants to hang out with you guys today. He said he wants a day with the bros." I say as Ashton looks down at me confused.

"Alright! Bro day!" Michael says taking a bite of his waffle. Ashton looks at me with confusion in his eyes.

"You need to spend time with them. Plus if we are going to be together all the time for two weeks I think we should take some of these days off to just get some alone time. Plus I have stuff I want to do today... shopping stuff that you wouldn't enjoy." I whisper smiling.

Ashton forces a smile. "You're right. But don't bring another man to help you shopping, because the last time you did that, things didn't end well." Ashton whispers, giggling.


	17. Chapter 17

The guys all pay for their food except for Calum who pays for Luke's since he's still outside. Ash pays for me, no matter how much I tell him I can pay for myself. He just ignores me and hands the waitress our money.

We all walk out of the restaurant to see Luke with his head in his hands, sitting on a bench. Great. He's upset again, thaks to me. We quickly walk back to the hotel so the guys could 'prepare' for their day out. They had to get some security because they were really planning on roaming the town. Ashton kept insisting on making someone go with me but I had never been given a reason to not feel safe so I just said no.

"I'm fine just go have fun." I tell him reassuringly. He smiles at me and kisses my cheek.

"Ok, just be careful! And no talking to strangers. Unless they look really sketchy and want to sell you drugs, then go right on ahead." I laugh and say,

"Oh, good to know!" He laughs as well and kisses me one more time.

"Ok, see you later babe, I have my phone on me incase you need can al—"

"Always call you, I know. Have fun!" I wave at him as he walks out of the hotel with the other guys. I quickly run upstairs and grab some money and a jacket, just incase. I feel my phone buzz in my pocket and see a text from Ashton: 'I almost forgot, I love you. ;)' I smile and text him back saying: 'I love you too. Now get off your phone and spend some time with the guys!' He replies: 'haha, Yes M'am!'. I put my phone away and start walking towards the mall. I go in and out a couple of stores and by a new sweater, two cute tops and a new pair of vans. I was about to call Ashton when I hear a voice behind me.

"Hi, are you Daniella Conners?" A girl around my age, maybe a year or two younger, asks me.

"Umm, yeah." The girl immediately gets super excited and says

"Can I get a picture with you?!" I'm confused at first but then I see the 5sos shirt she's wearing. Oh. Someone recognized me, that's new.

"Sure" I smile at her and take a picture with her. She gets super excited and starts asking me all these questions.

"So what's it like dating Ash? Is he a cuddler? Is he a good kisser? Oh my god!", she pauses making her voice a whisper, "is he good in bed?"

"Um... He's sweet." I say, awkwardly trying to avoid the last question.

"Oh." The girls seems kind of disappointed. "Well, I'm kind of confused. Were you and Luke ever dating? And did you cheat on him with Ashton?" My eyes widen.

"WHAT?! No! I was never dating Luke we're just friends. I've been dating Ashton for about 6 months now and I would never cheat on him." I stress the word never while talking so that she gets the hint.

"Oh, I mean I knew that. It's just the interview where they cleared that up was good but Luke just looked kind of sad at the end." I look down a little.

"Yeah, well, he was just a little tired that day." I lie.

"Oh, ok. Hey! Do you think you can ask the guys to follow me on twitter?!" Her eyes widen and I don't want to say no so I just agree. She gives me her twitter name and I say goodbye. I look at the time and it's already 6:30. Wow, I was shopping for a long time. I take out my phone and start to walk back to the hotel. I call Ashton and he picks up after the 3rd ring.

"Hey babe! How was shopping?"

"Uh, good. Got a couple of things."

"Well that's good. Are you on your way back to the hotel?"

"Yeah, I should be there in a couple of minutes."

"Ok, well, the guys and I are in our room, we're just hanging out."

"Ok, I'll be up in a bit."

"K, see you soon."

"Bye." I hang up the phone and walk into the hotel. I walk to the room and unlock the door with my key-card. I can hear laughing inside. That's good. I open the door and walk it to see Calum lying face down on the floor with Michael sitting on his back trying to 'wake him up'. Ashton is on the bed laughing a little and shouting at the bundle of bodies on the floor while Luke is sitting in a chair laughing his head off. I smile.

"What's going on here?" I ask. All the guys look up at me except for Calum who's facing the other way. I can see Luke's smile fade a little when he sees me.

"Hey Dani!" Calum says from under Michael.

"We're just being weird." Ashton says, getting up from the bed and he pecks me.

"Mhmm." I say looking back at the boys on the floor. I sit back down on the bed with Ash sitting behind me and his hands wrapped around my waist. "So what do you guys want to do with the rest of the night?" I ask them. "

Oh! Can we go to this club?! I saw it the other night and it's looks really cool!" Calum says getting up, pushing Michael off of him.

"Can you guys even drink here? I know I can't." I say, looking at him skeptically.

"Technically no, but we're allowed to go into clubs as long as we don't do any hard liquor." Ashton says from behind me, his lips next to my head.

"Oh, well... Um..." I wasn't really sure what to say. I hadn't really had a proper drink before and I didn't want to be a party pooper.

"You don't have to drink anything. We're not gonna make you do anything." Michael tells me.

"Well, I might." Ashton whispers seductively into my ear. I blush and agree to go with them.

"Yay! Partay!" Calum screams from the floor. I see Luke smile a little.

"Ok, now get out, all of you. I need to get ready." I say.

"Wait, all of us? Because you don't need to hide anything, it's not like it's something I haven't seen." Ashton says pretending to be confused. Right when he finishes talking, Luke darts up from the chair and says,

"Ok, we'll just meet you downstairs then. Let's go boys." He strides out of the room without saying another word or giving either of us a second glance. The other boys awkwardly leave the room since everyone can feel the tension between the three of us. The door closes and U turn and hit Ashton on the arm, hard.

"Ow! Hey! What was that for?!" He asks rubbing his arm.

"Stop making those sexual remarks around Luke!" I say angrily, but still gently.

"Why? He needs to accept the fact that we're dating. He wants to have you but he can't and he won't because you're mine and I'm yours. He needs to grow a pair and just get over it. And if seeing you with me isn't enough then I don't know what kind of man he is." I'm a little shocked at his words. Of course I didn't think he and Luke were back to normal but I didn't think they'd still be at each other's throats, well, that Ashton would still be at his. He sighs and rests one hand on my thigh and the other on my cheek. "Look, I know you're just being your caring and lovely self but I don't want to have to change the way I am with you just because he's around. Yes, that's selfish of me, but love is selfish." I look at him and he smiles glancing down to my lips. He kisses me and pulls me in on top of him so that I'm basically lying flat on top of him. His hands go to my waist and roam my back. I break off the kiss by saying,

"Well I guess I'm selfish too. I'm sorry for bringing it up."

"It's ok" he smiles at me and pecks my lips once more before finally releasing me. I grab a couple of things from MY suitcase and get ready for the club. This should be fun.


	18. Chapter 18

Once everyone is ready Ashton and I meet everyone in the lobby.

"You look smoking babe" Ashton says kissing me while we are in the elevator. I blush and I lock my hands with his and I lean up to kiss him back.

"I'm kind of nervous, I've never been clubbing before." I say timidly.

"You'll be fine just stick with me. If anyone bothers you I'll take care of them. Just relax and have fun." Ashton says and the elevator doors open. We see all three guys standing by the front entrance. Ashton takes my hand as we walk over to the guys. Ashton places his hand on Michael's shoulder and smiles

"ready guys?" he says.

"Let's go!" Calum says excitedly as everyone exits the lobby. Ashton lets go of my hand and he goes over to talk with Michael so I speed up a bit so I can catch up to Luke who is well ahead of everyone.

"You look really nice tonight Luke." I tell him.

"Thank you, you look gorg-" he stops. "you look good too." he says without looking at me.

"Are you excited to go clubbing? I bet there will be a lot of pretty girls there." I say nudging him trying to get Luked cheered up.

"Yeah I guess, but most of them are just there looking for sex. And all of them are so typical and dull." Luke says.

"Well that's not true, I mean I'm sure there are some down to earth girls who like to club." I say trying to reassure him.

"Do you like to club?" Luke asks.

"Well I mean I've never gone because it's really not my thing-"

"Then no. there aren't." Luke says back. Why was he so frustrating all the time?!

"Well I mean maybe a one night stand would get your mind off of things then?" I say. Luke looks at me and I can see the despair and anger in his deep blue eyes.

"Really? It's nice to know you think I'm just worth a one night stand" Luke says harshly.

"No Luke that's not what I meant-" I stop when I feel Ashton's hand on my shoulder. He wraps his arm around me and pulls me in close and I see Luke go over to walk next to Calum. After a few minutes of walking we finally reach the club. I could hear the music from yards away and there was a huge crowd of people.

"How are we supposed to get in Ash?" I ask timidly.

"Relax, we'll get in." he says. I see Calum walk up to the usher and he looks at all of us suspiciously but after a while he finally lets us in. I am overcome with the loudness and the chaos of the scene and I stop in my steps. Ashton turns around and notices me standing frozen. He walks back over to me and puts his arms on my shoulders

"Babe we can go if you don't want to be here." Ashton says loudly so that I can hear him over the noise.

"No it's okay. I'm just still trying to take it all in thats all! Go enjoy your night with guys!" I shout back. He kisses me and then he grabs my hand and pulls me into the crowd. He stands behind me and grabs my waist so that it is up against his and we both dance to the music. His arms move up and down my sides, lifting up my tank top so that I can feel his hands on my bare skin. I turn myself around and wrap my arms around him and pull him in close. He smiles at me and he kisses me passionately. I begin to grab the back of his shirt and I dig into his skin as I hold his torso firmly against mine. We both keep kissing whilst dancing to the music and then Ashton finally pulls away.

"I'm gonna go get a drink! Do you want one!" He shouts.

"No I'm fine for now!" I say smiling. I was fine with the loudness and the dancing but I didn't want to drink. Plus the guys need at least one sober member of the group to lead them back to the hotel. Ashton walks away and I am alone on the dance floor. After a few minutes Ashton comes back and we dance for a long time and Ashton keeps going back and forth for drinks. After a long while of dancing I decide to sit down on a couch on the side of the dance floor. Dancing had become tiring and overwhelming. To much sexual tension in a tiny crowded space for my liking. Ashton stays on the dance floor with Calum and Michael. I laugh at them because they were horrible at dancing. I mean literally horrid. Cringe worthy even.

"Look at this moOvVVE Baabebe!" Ashton shouts from the dance floor and his words stumble because he was very intoxicated,

"Nice moves!" I say lifting up my diet coke. Then I feel the couch bounce and I turn and I see Luke sitting next to you with a drink in his hand and his blonde hair all messy.

"Hows the clubbing?" He asks.

"Its alright. I guess" I say smiling at him.

"Do you really love Ashton?" Luke asks placing his hand on my leg. I don't do anything because I knew he was drunk.

"Okay Luke how much have you had to drink?" I say giggling uncomfortably.

"No im serious! I love you too you know!" Luke says.

"Luke stop you're drunk." I say as I scoot out of his grasp. Then he stands up stumbling a bit on his long legs.

"Why won't you believe me! You won't believe me when I'm sober or when I'm drunk. Is my happiness not important?" Luke says. I stand up and I grab Luke's hand to get him to sit down.

"Okay Luke sit down-" Luke cuts me off by pulling me in and smashing his lip against mine. We kiss for a moment before I realize and I push him off so that he stumbles back.

"Luke what the hell are you doing!" I yell and I see Ashton walking over with an angry face. Shit. He pushes Luke and Luke stumbles back.

"What the hell asshole?!" He shouts. Luke pushes Ashton back into my arms. I can barely keep his strong torso from falling over but I try anyway.

"Ashton stop okay you're both drunk just leav-"

"Just stay out of this Dan! Let me handle it!" he says as he jerks himself away from my grasp. Tears start to roll down my face.

"You know what Ashton if it weren't for me this little happy go-lucky relationship of yours would never even exist!" Luke shouts. Crap. He's gonna tell Ashton the story. I wanted Luke to tell him but not like this. I see Michael and Calum run over from the bar.

"What the fuck are you talking about!" Ashton yells as he grabs Luke by the shirt.

"That night you met her! I was gonna ask her out too!-"

"Luke stop!" Calum cuts in pushing two woman out the way in order to reach us.

But Luke didn't listen so he continues.

"I was going to! But then I overheard you talking with Michael about how she made you happy and how you were gonna ask her out too! Because I cared about you! You were my brother! And I realize now that was a mistake! Because why would I give a shit about a persons happiness who doesn't even give a shit about my own!" Luke shouts.

"Why the hell would I ever give a shit about your happiness now. You're so pathetic!" Ashton growls throwing Luke back.

"Ash you don't mean that!" MIchael says.

"Yes I do!" Ashton shouts. I can't believe he was saying these things after everything they had been through. I see Luke turn around slowly and I am about to look down when suddenly I see Luke turn around violently as he punches Ashton in the face throwing him to the ground.

"STOP! LUKE STOP!" I scream as I run over and sit down next to Ashton who is holding his cheek with his hand. "Ashton, please stop. This fight isn't worth it." I plead. But he doesn't listen and he rushes back to his feet and charges Luke and they both stumble to the ground and start throwing punches back and forth. "STOP PLEASE!" I begin to scream desperately. Calum comes over and wraps his arms around me and I bury my head into his chest fisting his shirt. "Im sorry." I say quietly choking on my tears.

"This isnt your fault Dani." Calum says rubbing my back to comfort me. I pull away from his grasp and he wipes away my tears with his shirt. "Do you want me to take you home?" he asks. I turn around and I see Ashton and Luke and their beat up faces with Michael standing over them. I never knew either one of those boys was capable of such hatred towards anyone. I couldn't understand why they would be so upset over some girl like me. I was starting to get the feeling something else was going on but I didn't care. I was done. I see Calum walk over to Michael and whisper something in his ear, then he comes back over. "Let's go back to the hotel." Calum says as we walk outside. Thank god Calum was some what sober I thought to myself. We walk back to the hotel in silence until we reach Ashton and I's hotel room. I open the door with the key card and we walk in. I turn around and notice Calum walking away.

"Wait! Calum! Do you think you could just stay in here with me? I'm scared and I am a mess and I don't want to be alone when Ashton gets back." I say. At first Calum is hesitant of course. He doesn't want to end up in the same situation as Luke but I knew that Calum was just being a good friend. He smiles at me.

"Of course I will." He walks over to the chair and sits down. I go into the closet and change into my pj's and then I climb into bed.

"Thank you Cal." I say as I drift off to sleep.

I wake up and rub my eyes. I look to the chair where Calum was sitting and see an empty space, he probably left after I fell asleep. I was about to ask myself why he left when I see a lump in bed next to me. Great. A fully clothed Ashton is lying face down in bed next to me, lightly snoring. I get out of bed and decide to take a shower. I know when he wakes up that we are going to get pretty heated, and not in a hot kind of way. I get out of the bathroom and change into some comfortable clothes since we'll be getting back on the bus around noon. I walk back into the bedroom and see Ashton sitting on the edge of the bed with his head in his hands, rubbing his temples.

"Hey." I say without emotion. I was still mad at him and Luke, and I didn't want to just let them off the hook, not this time. He turns around and looks at me with blood-shot eyes, he's hungover. Now I can see the full extent of his injuries. He's got a black eye and a cut along his chin. His lip is cut and his knuckles are red.

"Oh, hey babe. Um, do you mind getting me an asprin or something? My head is killing me." He says to me innocently, as if nothing happened last night.

"Do you even remember what happened yesterday?" I ask him angrily. He stands up from the bed and walks towards me. His hands travel towards my hips,

"babe-" I slap them away and step back.

"You punched Luke! Your best friend!" He looks down as if he was guilty but then he looks up, his eyes full of anger.

"And you're mad at me for that?! He kissed you! He can't keep his fucking hands off you even though he sees you with me! And then he makes up this BULLSHIT story-"

"It wasn't a lie! He was telling the truth! He let us be together! He is the reason we are where we are now and you still throw him around like nothing!"

"So what?! Are you on his side now?!" He walks away from me and runs his hands through his hair. "It's happening. My own girlfriend is on that bastards side. I knew this would happen." He says to himself, walking back and forth and finally sitting down on the bed. I sigh and I want to comfort him but he hit Luke and that's not the kind of man I want to be with.

"Look, I'm on your side, it's just-"

"You love him." He says blankly.

"Oh my god, NO!" I sit down next to him, still keeping space inbetween the two of us.

"I love you Ashton. You mean everything to me." I pause. "It's just, I feel like you don't trust me." He looks up, shocked at my reply. "You don't trust me with him. You think that I'm going to run away with him at any second of any day." He looks back down to the floor. "I have shared stuff with you I have NEVER shared with anyone else. For gods sake you've seen me naked!" I say, he laughs halfhearted. "I just wish you would feel as safe as I am with you, with me." He looks at me, now sad and says,

"I do feel safe with you, I just...it's complicated." I roll your eyes.

"Great. Thanks. That's exactly the answer I was looking for." I get up and walk towards the closet, getting the rest of my clothes out and putting them in my suitcase.

"What are you doing?" Ashton asks annoyed.

"I'm packing my suitcase. Incase you've forgotten, we're going to the next city today and you've got a show tonight, where you have to stand behind Luke and drum for all of your adoring fans, and an interview tomorrow where you'll have lots of fun explaining how you got your face smashed by your best friend." I slam my suitcase closed and zip it up. I put on some shoes and grab my jacket. "If you need me, I'll be on the bus." He was about to open his mouth and say something but before he could I quickly add. "Don't need me." With that I leave the room, slamming the door. Fucking jerk.


	19. Chapter 19

**Luke's POV**

I woke up with my head pounding. Fuck. I opened my eyes and saw Calum staring at me from his bed. He was fully dressed and had his suitcase on his bed.

"Get up, we're leaving." He says coldly. Ouch, what did I do to him?

"What's with you?" I ask him as I get up.

"I don't know. Why don't you ask the asshole who kissed his best friend's girlfriend and then punched him." He says without emotion, looking me dead in the eye. I sigh. What have I done. I've screwed everything up. But that kiss. I know I shouldn't have done it and I'll definetly have to pay for it later but, damn. That kiss was perfect, well besides the fact that she pushed me back and I ended up getting punched in the face. But I felt the fireworks and the butterflies and all that crap, even while I was drunk! What does she do to me?! I think I love her more now. Fuck. I need to talk to Daniella, or will that make it worse?

"Where's Dani?" I ask.

"On the bus, she left the room looking pretty damn mad." I figured. This is my fault. I'm ruining a perfectly happy relationship because I couldn't keep it in my pants, or lips? Whatever. I need to fix this. I pack my suitcase and Calum hands me an asprin for my head.

"Thanks."

"Mhmm." He says and turns around leaving me in the room. I follow closely behind him and head to the bus where I'm greeted by a very bruised Ashton, a sleepy Michael and a red-eyed Daniella who gets up from the couch and walks into the bunks after she sees me. This is going to be a long drive. Michael walks back into the bunks as well probably to go back to sleep. I didn't know what I was going to do. We had an interview before the show and Ashton and I both look like shit and there isn't a logical explanation for any of this...well there is but it's not one that we will want to share collectively as a band. I try not to look Ashton in the face as I make my way to the back room to go lay down on the couch. Even though I wasn't looking I could still feel his stare. I hate him. I hate myself. The only one I don't hate is Daniella. In fact it's quite the opposite I love her. Fuck. Stop thinking about her. I walk past her bunk and she is facing the ceiling looking at her phone with headphones in. She turns and looks at me and her eyes are still red and wet. It crushes me to see her upset and it crushes me even more to know that since we've been on this bus I've caused all her despair. She doesn't say anything and I decide not to say anything either so I make my way to the back room where I find Calum sitting on the couch. I slide the door closed behind me and take a seat across from him. Just a day ago I told him the story about the first time Ashton and I saw Daniella and he comforted me and now he looks at me as if he doesn't even know who I am. I don't even know who I am anymore.

"Calum-"

"Nothing you say or do is going to change what the hell you did last night" Calum says.

"Ashton did some horrible things last night as well. Did you hear what he said to me Calum?" I say defending myself.

"I did. And I'm angry at him as well. But you started this mess Luke. You may have started the relationship but now you're the reason it might end." Calum says not looking at me. I stand up in disbelief.

"Are you fucking kidding me? Just the other day you said you were on my side!" I yell.

"Keep your voice down Luke! I was on your side. But now I'm not. And I'm not on Ashton's side either. I'm on Daniella's side because believe it or not while you two are too busy fighting, Daniella feels alone and feels as if all of this is her fault." Calum says back.

"But it's not her fault-"

"But she thinks it is Luke! Don't you get it! If you and Ashton keep fighting she'll be gone. And none of us will see her again. You think that if her and Ashton breakup she'll stick around? She'll want to be with you? No, she'll go home where things are simpler and easier and quieter. Away from you two assholes. You know what at the moment I don't think either of you deserve her." Calum begins to yell. He was right. Neither of us deserved her. I didn't deserve anyone. But even though he was right I still felt as if I had to push back. I'm sick and tired of being the pushover.

"You know what Calum I can't believe I ever asked you for help. I should've kept my mouth shut." I tell him.

"Yeah, you should've. Because if you had then no one would be in this mess." Calum says.

"Alright Calum if you think you're right about everything then why don't you fix this." I say rebuttling.

"I can't fix this Luke. You and Ash need to fix this. But if I were Dani I'd take a break from being around you two." Calum says as he walks past me and slides the door open and walks out. I throw myself onto the couch and toss my head into my hands. "Ahh." I say in pain because I still have a bruise and it hurts to touch it. All the yelling is hurting my head and being hungover doesn't make any of this easier. I lay down on the couch and decide to close my eyes for a few seconds. Those seconds become minutes. And those minutes become hours.

Daniella's POV

As soon as I see Luke, I rush to the bunks in order to avoid him and Ashton and the tears from last night are still in my eyes. I hop onto the top bunk and I pull out my phone and start listening to music. I go through a bunch of old pictures of my friends from before I met Ashton. I remember all the memories I shared with them back at school. I think back to all the times I spent listening to music with them and going crazy whenever there was a new music video and all the times I spent with them staying up late at night gossiping or talking about the guys. The truth was now that I was in a very very very rough patch with Ashton I began to realize how much I miss my true friends and I start to wonder if they miss me. I begin to wish my bestest friend, besides Ashton, Lara was here to comfort me but she wasn't and I feel more tears form in my eyes thinking about how I haven't seen her in the longest time. And thinking about her I start to think about when the guys didn't even know I existed. I think back to the times where I loved all of them equally and they always made me smile, every single one of them. I remember smiling whenever I thought about one of the stupid jokes one of them made in an interview, or thinking about their laughs, or their smiles. But none of that was ever going to come back because now I only loved Ashton, Ashton was the only one who made me smile, who made me happy...or at least he was. I shake all these thoughts off, I was angry at Ashton but I still love him and I'm scared about what will happen today at the interview, tonight at the show, after the show, I was scared of everything that was going to happen from now on. I don't want to have to say goodbye to him. The thought of losing him made me feel empty as if I was falling into oblivion. But at the same time I didn't want to ruin their brotherhood it wasn't fair to them. Suddenly I hear Luke and Calum yelling from the back room. My music must be turned up way loud because I couldn't hear them before.

"You know what Calum I can't believe I ever asked you for help. I should've kept my mouth shut." I hear Luke yell.

"Yeah, you should've. Because if you had then no one would be in this mess." Calum yells back.

"Alright Calum if you think you're right about everything then why don't you fix this." Luke says rebuttling.

"I can't fix this Luke. You and Ash need to fix this. But if I were Dani I'd take a break from being around you two." I hear Calum say and then he comes out of the back room. He turns and looks at me and he half-heartedly smiles, probably trying to comfort me. He places his hand on my bunk "you do what's best for you Dani. Your happiness is what is most important." Calum says quietly and he walks over to his bunk and closes the curtain. I wipe tears away from my eyes and I smile. Thank God Calum is reasonable, he is the balance in this whole mess. I start to wonder back to home. Is Calum right? Is going home for a while such a bad idea? Right now it seems like the most amazing thing to be able to go home and just be in my own room and being able to think. But I knew that I couldn't go home. I didn't want to leave Ashton no matter how much it was hurting me to see him this way. I guess I'll see what happens but for right now I just have to be strong. I turn my music back up and I get under the sheets and drift off to sleep for a few hours.

"Dani. We're at the interview." I hear Ashton say as he shakes me awake. I slowly open my eyes and for the first time him being the first person I see when I open them doesn't make me smile, it makes me sad and scared. I don't say anything but Ashton places his hand on my arm and squeezes it.

"I don't know what we're gonna say at this interview but just know that whatever happens I want you to be happy. I love you." he says as he kisses me on the cheek and then turns around and hops off the bus. I didn't say I love you back even though I was thinking it. I love him so fucking much and I thought nothing would ever change that and I hope nothing ever will. But right now, everything seems different. I am still lying in my bunk, listening to the ringing sound that you hear when it's completely silent. I decide to turn on the tv and watch the interview, I was pretty curious on how they were going to weasel their way out of this one. I grab the blanket that was lying on the couch in the back room and wrap myself in a comfy burrito. I turn on the TV and see their familiar faces on the screen.

"Please welcome our special guest, 5 Seconds of Summer!" the interviewer announces.

"Hi"

"Hey"

"Good to be here"

"What's up?" each of the guys say.

"So, you just performed your new song from your new EP right?" The interviewer asks. So they just performed, whatever, I've probably heard it before.

"Yeah, the song means a lot to us and it will always remain close to our hearts and we're really happy the fans are enjoying it" Luke says.

"Well, it definitely was well received here am I right?" the interviewer asks the audience and they cheer. One girl screams "I love you Luke!" and he smiles half-heartedly, glad that someone loves him back. "Anyway, I'm actually quite curious about what happened to you two." He gestures to Ashton and Luke. I can see Ashton look to the floor and Luke awkwardly shift in his seat. Luckily Calum saves the day.

"They were playing paintball and it got pretty heated towards the end."

"Yeah," Michael cuts in, "Calum and I were playing as well but Ashton and Luke went out of the boundaries like the geniuses they are and were fighting each other-"

"Not like punching fighting, but with paintballs and stuff." Calum interrupts him.

"Yeah and then I was hiding behind a tree and was about to turn around when I saw Luke literally 5 cenimetres from my face." Ashton adds.

"I didn't see him at first so I freaked out and accidentally shot him in the face." Luke says flashing a smile. All the guys laugh and so does the interviewer. Good, at least they kind of believe it.

"But weren't you wearing masks? I thought it was required?" The interviewer asks. God dammit, stop digging.

"We're too punk rock for masks." Michael says causing the entire audience to laugh.

"Clearly, but what happened to your hands?" he says gesturing to the red and blue blotches on both of their knuckles. The boys remain quiet, clearly out of excuses. But just then and there the interviewer glances to the side of the screen, probably someone off stage, and nods. "Must have been another flesh wound," He laughs and the boys loosen up a little.

"Ok, well lets move o-" I turn off the TV and just decide to get some more sleep. I got home pretty late last night and I couldn't sleep to well after what had happened. I lie down on the couch and snuggle into the blanket. I close my eyes and drift off into a deep slumber. However, my sleep was not brightened by silly dreams. In fact, I had none.


	20. Chapter 20

Ashton's POV

We finished the interview and shook hands with the guy who was interviewing us.

"Thank you so much for having us" I said. I wasn't lying but I wanted to fix things with Dani and the longer I was here, the longer she was mad at me. My hangover was gone but my head still hurt. I couldn't understand why but I just decided to ignore it. The guys and I walk back to the bus after making our way through a couple of fans and taking a couple of pictures. Once we're on the bus I head to the back room to try and sort my thoughts. I open the partition, expecting an empty room and see Daniella lying on the couch covered in blankets. She's sleeping. I feel awful. She must have not slept very well because of what happened last night. This is my fault. I overreacted when Luke kissed her. I mean, he was drunk and so was I, I don't think he would have ever done that if we were sober. He knows what she means to me. He knows what she's done for me. I need her. There are plenty of other pretty girls out there that love him. He just needs to take his pick and move on. I sigh. I sit next to her on the couch and put my hand on her head. I run my hand through her light brown hair and stroke little bits of hair out of her face. She looked so relaxed, peaceful almost but you could see the slight crease in her eyebrows and her eyes moving spastically under her eyelids. I glanced to her lips and started to feel a twang in my chest. God I missed her. I don't know how I managed to stay away from her for so long. When I was on tour I had to go months without kissing her or holding her or hearing her laugh. Now, it's only been a day since we've really kissed and I feel like the life has been sucked out of me. Then again, I guess it's better to be apart and in love than close and broken. I lifted her head and scootched under her so that her head was resting on my lap. I kissed her head and moved the hair from her eyes again and then continued running my hand through her hair. God. What have I done to deserve her? What did I do that allowed me to fall in love with a girl that loves me back unconditionally. I've screwed up everything and now she's scared of me. I can see it when she looks at me, if she looks at me. Fuck I've messed up.

Daniella's POV

I wake up and feel warm. I feel safe yet unsteady, as if I was a vase that had been smashed and then carelessly glued back together again. I feel a hand go through my hair lovingly and open my eyes. I see Ashton's hazel eyes looking down at me, longingly, almost as if he were lost and needed guidance. I sit up quickly after I realize my head had been resting on his lap.

"Um... Hey." I say, unsure of what to do.

"Hi." He replies quietly. I look out the window and see that it's slowly turning dark. The show! "Ashton! Your show! Doesn't it start soon?!" I say alarmed.

"Yeah, in 20 minutes but I wanted to stay with you until you woke up. I didn't want you to wake up alone." I blush a little and look down. He still makes me blush even though I'm trying to stay mad at him right now.

"Oh. Thanks." is all I say. I was still mad but that didn't mean I couldn't be polite. There's an awkward silence for a moment before he finally speaks up.

"Well, I'm gonna go. I've got a show to play." He laughs a little pretending to laugh it off. "If you want to, you're still welcome to watch it if you want." He says looking at me.

"Ok, maybe I'll come in a bit." I replied cryptically.

"Ok." he says and leaves the bus, closing the door behind him. He didn't say I love you. Then again, neither did I.

***After the show***

Ashton's POV

My heart was pounding harder than usual after the show. My heart would pound due to the adrenaline, the energy, the loudness, and the thrill of playing in front of a crowd. But tonight it was pounding for completely different reasons. It was pounding because of Dani. I was losing her, she was slipping away. She is my happiness, my everything and without her I'm nothing. Losing her would be like losing myself. I feel my heart pound against my chest harder and harder until I have to bend over and put my hands on my knees. I stand in that position trying to catch my breath until I feel a hand on my back, I stand up and I see Calum standing there. He puts his hand on my shoulder and his face is emotionless

"Are you okay Ash?" he asks quietly.

"I'm fine I just...I don't feel well." I say lying to him. I couldn't tell him how I felt without him judging me or giving me a lecture.

"Well let's go then we gotta get on the bus. We have a long way to travel to get to the show tomorrow." Calum says walking away from me. I take a deep breath and close my eyes thinking about what she's doing right now. Hopefully she was sleeping because I don't think I can small talk with her right now. It hurts too much.

Daniella's POV

I am awakened by the bus door slamming open. Great, the show must be over. I turn so that I am facing the inside wall of my bunk. I didn't want to see Ashton or Luke right now, I just wanted peace and quiet. The guys are quiet as I can hear them shuffling into their sleeping bunks. I feel a presence behind me but I pretend like I don't notice.

"Daniella?" I hear Calum whisper.

"What?" I ask.

"Are you okay?" he whispers. I smile a bit,

"I'm fine I just want to be alone right now Cal. I'm sorry." I say as I turn and look at him.

"It's fine. I understand." he says and I see him crawl into the bunk underneath me. I take in a deep breath and close my eyes and I feel myself falling asleep again. After a few hours I wake up and I see that it is still dark outside. I check my phone and it said that it was 5 A.M. I rub my eyes a bit and I stretch out my arms and legs and I stuff my face back into my blanket and I look up for a split second and I see that the bunk across from mine is empty, where's Ashton? I look to the bunk underneath me and I see that Calum is missing as well. Where could they possibly be for heaven's sake we are on a tour bus! Then I shut out the noises of the cars driving by and the sounds of Luke and Michael breathing and I hear whispers coming from the back room.

"What the hell were you thinking Calum? Why would you say that to her?" I hear Ashton whisper. I slowly get out of my bunk and sit down on Calum's and lean my head against the door.

"Because, it's true Ash. She has to do what makes her happy and I don't think being around you two is making her happy." Calum says. He was right, being around Ashton was exhausting and it felt like whenever I was around him I was still alone. But leaving wouldn't make me happy either, at least I don't think it will.

"You have no say in this Calum. None of you do. Since when did Dani and I's relationship become you guys' issue?-"

"Since it started to hurt you. And Luke. Since it tore you two apart. I don't give a shit if you and Luke want to hate each other. But I'm not going to let this issues take both of you away. I still want my brothers. And I don't want to hurt Daniella. She feels guilty as if she is tearing this band apart. I can't let her feel that way Ashton and you shouldn't either. I'm sorry." Calum says. There is silence for a long while and then I hear someone walking towards the door. I quickly hop back into my bunk, bumping my knee on the side. Ow! I squint as I lay back down and my blanket falls to the ground. Ugghh seriously? I hear Calum crawl back into the bed and I can feel Ashton standing next to me. Then I feel a hand brush my hair away from my face and rub my cheek. His hands are warm and I can feel the scabs and the cuts from the fights but his hands still somehow felt soft and safe. I tried my hardest not tear up or smile or grab his hand. I wanted to be with him so bad but I couldn't, it just didn't feel right. Then I felt the hand leave my cheek and a few moments later I feel Ashton cover me with the blanket. He lays it on top of me perfectly and then he kisses me on the cheek.

"As long as you're happy, I'll be happy no matter what." I hear him whisper and then I hear him crawl back to his bunk. My heart stops, he still hasn't said I love you, but I understood why. Why would he say it when I know it is hurting him because right now what we are going through, it didn't feel like love at all. After a few moments I finally drift back to sleep.

I wake up around 9 A.M and Calum, Luke, and Michael are still fast asleep but I notice that Ashton was gone from his bunk. I was tired of laying down and I wanted to move about but I was in no mood right now to make small talk with Ashton, if I did I knew I would forgive him because I miss him and I want him back, but I couldn't right now. He had to learn that he had to trust me, that he had to let these problems of his go. I fling my legs across the side of the bunk, being careful not to hit Calum, and I touch my cheek with my hand. I could still feel the warmth from his hands but then I think about the feeling of the scars I felt and I cringe a bit. I take a deep breath in and hop off the bed quietly and I hear the TV on in the backroom. Good, I can have the kitchen and eat breakfast. I open the cupboards and I see the usual things vegemite, Nutella, peanut butter, bread, fruits, and chips. I grab an apple, a banana, and a piece of bread. I grab a cutting board from the cupboard below and I decide to cut up the banana and apples into slices. The banana was easy to slice into but the apple was difficult. I try my hardest to push through the hard core but I can't without the apple slipping. I close my eyes to concentrate and after a few moments of breathing in and out I feel two arms wrap around me. I smile and blush as I turn my head and see Ashton smiling at me.

"Do you need help with that babe?" he asks happily. I give him a look,

"I don't need help from you right now Ashton." I say trying to hold back my feelings.

"Come on let me help you." Ashton says as he takes the knife from my hands and cuts into the apple as he keeps his torso up against my back side. I could feel his strength, his warmth, and when he's done I turn around so that his chest is leaning up against mine. I wrap my arms around his shoulders and I push him in for a kiss. He puts his hands underneath me and lifts me up onto the table as he kisses me passionately. With one hand still intertwined in his hair I use the other hand to move the slicing board out of the way.

"I missed you." he says seductively as he places his hand on my legs and starts to grip them tighter.

"I missed you too.." I say as I start to tug on the back of his t-shirt.

"I love you, I love you, I love you." he says in between each kiss. Hearing him say those words suddenly causes uneasiness in my stomach. I push him aside and I look down at the ground.

"No Ashton I'm sorry, I can't." I say feeling myself tremble.

"You can't what?" he asks sadly.

"I don't know. I want to say it but I can't. I just can't." I say as tears come to my eyes.

"Why?" Ashton asks quietly coming over and wrapping his arms around me trying to comfort you.

"I suddenly feel alone when I'm with you. I feel, I feel unsure." I say choking on my tears.

"I love you, I don't care what you say or what you feel I love you Dan." Ashton says. I look up at him saying nothing back. "Dan?" Ashton asks. I say nothing "Dani?!" I see Ashton's mouth open but for some reason I hear Calum's voice coming from it. I look at Ashton confused and I close my eyes to shake it off and sink the tears back in until finally one last shout of my name and the feeling of a hand on my shoulder causes me to open my eyes. I look up and I am still holding the knife and the apple and my hands are shaking.

"Daniella are you okay?" Calum asks as he takes the knife away from me. "Here let me do this for you." Calum says as I step aside so that he can cut into it. It felt so real, but it wasn't. I feel my head pound and I take a seat at the table. That was the closest I'd been to Ashton in what felt like forever and I was imagining the whole thing.


	21. Chapter 21

Calum sets the plate of fruit next to me and he has arranged the pieces into a smiley face. I smile half-heartedly and I don't look up at him.

"Do you want something to drink?" he asks.

"Just ummm just water is fine." I say. He grabs a water bottle from the fridge and sets it beside me as he takes a seat across the table. I eat my fruit and I can see my hands shaking. Uggh why were they shaking so much it was just a dream, it wasn't real, stop shaking. I try to force my hands to stop but they won't and I become frustrated with myself and I see a tear hit the table.

"Daniella?" Calum says softly.

"I'm fine Calum...it's just...why did you tell Ashton about what you told me? About being away?" I ask trying to take away focus from my hands.

"I had to tell him Dani. He needs to know that he can't assume this isn't affecting you or that this won't change your relationship." Calum says softly. He was right, what was with him, Luke was right when he said Calum always found a way to calm people down.

"Thank you Cal...for just being a good friend." I say smiling as I get up from the table and walk to the back room to talk to Ashton. I had to say something to him. I couldn't stay in silence for much longer.

"Sometimes all you need is a friend." Calum whispers and I smile as I keep walking towards the back room. I open the door and I see Ashton laying face up on the couch with nothing on but his sweatpants and his earphones in. How the hell was I supposed to have a monotone discussion with him when he was shirtless. He knows his torso does things to me.

"Ash?" I say. But he can't hear me through the headphones. I walk over and sit on the couch at the end of where his feet are laying. He sees me and his facial expression doesn't change, he only sets the phone down takes out the earbuds and sits up to look at me. We are both silent for a while, which was odd because he always had something to say whether it be something meaningless or just saying I love you. I examine the cut on his face and the black eye. I look down to his hands and I see the scabs and the redness and the sores and I cringe at the man I saw at the club. That wasn't the Ashton I knew this person sitting in front of me was a stranger. But I tried to imagine the Ashton I knew he was. His smile, his mannerisms, the way he was always there for me and the way he made me feel like nothing bad could ever happen as long as I was with him.

"Asht-"

"The next stop we make you can go back home." Ashton says cutting me off. His words hit me in the gut, why would he say that? How could he ever think I wanted to leave?

"Ashton I'm not going anywhere." I say, I start to motion my hand to place it on his leg but I stop myself.

"But you should. Dammit. I don't want you too but you can't be around someone like me. I'm a mess. I'm no good for you Dani. And after what I did and how I've acted, you deserve someone better." Ashton says holding back tears. I feel my hands shake again.

"No. I know who you really are Ash. You may not be acting like the man I fell in love with months ago. But I know this isn't you. The Ashton I fell in love with wouldn't give up on anything or anyone. And I know things between us seem distant now Ash and I'm not ready to forgive you but I know we'll make it back. I'm staying here." I say as I get up from the couch and exit the back room. My heart was pounding but at least it was something.

"Dan." I hear Ashton say from behind me. I turn around and see his face with tears in his eyes.

"I'm gonna get you back. I'm gonna fix this. I can't lose my happiness. I won't lose my everything." He says as he walks past me into the kitchen. I take a deep breath and I turn to look at Luke who is staring at me. He stares at me for a while until he turns back to his phone. It was going to be a long rest of the tour.

The next couple of days were more of the same. I kept having these weird daydreams and I could never understand why. It's not like I didn't sleep enough, in fact, it was quite the opposite. When the guys were in interviews or shows I just slept. Being awake was too much for me, being awake meant having to talk to Ashton and I don't think I can handle that at the moment. Calum wanted to get me to the doctor because he said the amount I was sleeping wasn't healthy but I refused to go. The guys constantly got asked about their wounds but they managed to work their way around the questions. However, I knew some people weren't taking the fables. The twitter-verse was blowing up with #ashtonandlukefight and #ashtonbeatlukesass and vice versa. Ashton and Luke's wounds are barely visible by now. It's been a week and all that remained were a couple of white lines on their hands and faces, the bruises had faded days ago. We are in New Orleans today and the guys had another day off. To be honest, I have been pretty excited because I heard of this great place called the Preservation Hall, where they played live music to you with some of the best jazz players and singers of all time. It was really hard to get tickets and I am dying to spend the one night I have, there.

It was almost midnight and the bus just stopped at the hotel we were going to stay at. This is the first hotel since the one in Vegas. I blush at the memory of that night but then cringe at the memory of the next. How could memories not even two days apart give me such different feelings? I got off my bunk and took my headphones out. I see 4 excited boys in front of me, waiting with their bags to get off the bus. Well, 3. Luke was slowly cheering up with the help of Michael and Calum but Ashton was still trying to get me back and 'fix this'. He was looking at me with sad eyes, holding out his hand so I could grab it. There were fans out there and as much as I didn't want to hold his hand, I didn't want to get mobbed either, so I just took his hand without a word. I could see him smiling a little from the corner of my eye and I couldn't help but enjoy the warmth that was flowing from his hand, through mine and through my body. The door opens and I jump at the loud screams, he laughs a little next to me and says,

"Don't worry, I got you." Before giving my hand a squeeze and pulling me into the crowd. I grab onto his arm and close my eyes as he pulls me through. Once we get into the hotel I open my eyes and smile a little at him.

"Thanks." I say before letting go of his hand.

"Always." he replies smiling half-heartedly at me as he notices my discomfort.

"Ok, so how are we splitting up the rooms?" Michael asks, bringing everyone's attention to me.

"I don't mind, whatever's fine." I reply, not really wanting to answer the question. The truth was, I wanted nothing more than to cuddle in bed with Ashton but I didn't know if he felt the same. Yes, I was still a little mad at him and maybe a little scared as well but I missed him. I missed his touch and his kiss and just everything, like, a lot.

"Well, that doesn't really help us. You can have your own room if you want." Calum says sweetly.

"No, I don't want to sleep alone. I can just share with Ash." Everyone stares at me with wide eyes, clearly shocked at my answer. I hadn't spoken more than 10 words to Ashton in days and the fact that I now wanted to share a bed with him was pretty surprising, I don't blame them. "Is that ok?" I ask Ashton as he stares at me.

"Um, yeah, s-sure. Of course. definitely." He stutters, obviously confused.

"Ok... then I guess we'll share a room again" Calum says to Michael and Luke as he heads to the receptionist. We get our key-cards and head to the elevator. Behind me, I can hear Michael whisper

"Women. I'll never understand them." I end up alone with Ashton since the guys had trouble with their keys. Let's just say it was a pretty quiet ride up. Once we reach our room Ashton opens the door and lets me in first.

"Welcome to our room." He says awkwardly, gesturing to the room. I lie down on the bed and sigh, closing my eyes. It's quiet for a moment before Ashton breaks the silence.

"Why did you want to share a room with me?" I open my eyes and prop myself up on my elbows. "I mean, you haven't spoken to me in days." he asks confused.

"I guess I just missed you. Besides, I didn't want to sleep alone." I say simply.

"Ok..." he says and sets his bag down on the floor and sits down on the other side of the bed and takes off his shoes. We both get ready for bed. I'm in the bathroom in just my underwear and a big shirt I got from Ashton and open the door to the bedroom after I finish brushing my teeth. I find a shirtless Ashton lying in bed with just his underwear and I can't help but blush. He looks me up and down and seems to get distracted as well.

"If you're uncomfortable I can put on some pants or something." He says politely as he sees my red cheeks.

"No, it's fine. It's not like we're strangers or something." I say and get into bed next to him. As I'm flattening out the sheets around me, I hear him whisper,

"It sure does feel like it." I stop and look at him.

"What?" He looks me straight in the eye.

"It feels like we're strangers." he says. I give him a look but then realize that he's right. We have barely talked and when we do, we talk to each other in such a polite manner, I'd think even a stranger would find me too polite.

"I know." I say as I look down. We're both sitting up in bed and he shifts his entire body so that he's facing me.

"I'm trying here. I've been giving you your space, I've been giving you time to think, Hell! I even gave you the chance to leave!"

"But I'm still here." I whisper, almost guiltily.

"I've apologize a million times and I don't know what else to do! I can't sleep because I don't know how to make you happy again." I look at him after he says that. He's been having trouble sleeping? "All I want is for you to be happy and if that's breaking up with me then I'll do it. You need someone better than me." He pauses. "You deserve better. I'm a mess! Look, I'm still working on myself but I don't want to drag you into something that is clearly my problem." He takes a breath and looks at me.

"You make me happy." Is all I say. He contemplates what I just said and looks back at me. "I don't want to break up with you. Your problems are my problems and I don't want you to be upset anymore than you want me to be upset." He runs his hand through his hair and takes a deep breath.

"You know I would never hurt you, right?" He asks, looking back at me.

"Yes-"

"Because I can understand if you don't-" His eyes widen. "Wait, you said yes?"

"Yes. I know you would never hurt me." I look at him and glance to his lips. I wanted to kiss him so badly. It was nearly impossible to stop myself from grabbing him by his neck and pulling him towards me as I had imagined in so many of my daydreams.

"I forgive you." I say, surprising myself.

"What?" he says shocked.

"At least I think I do. I'm still not sure we're back to where we were before but I know I've had enough of this stupid fight. I'm sick of being mad at you. I want to fix this too." He wraps his arms around me and hugs me tightly. I snuggle my head into the crook of his neck and breath in his scent. I had missed him so much and just being this close to him made me feel those little butterflies in my stomach again. I pull back and he looks at me smiling.

"I love you. And you don't have to say it back right now but I just want you to know that my feelings towards you haven't changed and won't change." I smile and can't hold myself back anymore. I put my hand around his neck and pull him in for a kiss. Once our lips meet, everything seems ok again. I can still feel the light roughness on his hands but it's ok. They are just remains of what happened weeks ago, I need to focus on now. His hands rest on my lower back and he lowers me to the bed so that he's on top of me. I needed this. He needed this.


	22. Chapter 22

*****Later that night*****

Ashton turns off the light to the room and we both lay down next to each other. My back faces him and he wraps his arm around me as he lays face up on the bed. I cuddle my way into his arm trying to keep my body a fair distance from his because I still felt unsure but I wanted to feel his warmth and the strength of his body. I lay there in bed for what seems like forever and I think about what happened tonight and the way it felt to kiss him again. That kiss felt so right but so wrong at the same time, all these feelings I feel are confusing me. I didn't want to feel confused anymore. I feel Ashton shuffle around a bit and I wondered if he was awake or not.

"Ash? Are you asleep?" I whisper as I turn around and face him. I see his eyes open and he only looks at me.

"I'm having trouble sleeping remember" Ashton says expressionless.

"I can't sleep either." I say. He takes his hand and pushes the hair from my face and moves his arm from underneath me and props himself up against the headboard.

"Maybe we can go do something." Ashton says. I sit up as well.

"Where would we possibly go Ash? It's 1 A.M." I say looking down at my hands.

"I don't know I'm just tired of being stuck in one place after the other." Ashton says softly. I take a deep breath in and I get up off the bed. I go into the closet and put on a pair of jeans and I leave the shirt I am wearing on.

"What are you doing?" Ashton asks. I peak my head out of the closet and I see him standing there.

"I'm getting ready to go." I say. Ashton comes into the closest and stands beside you.

"Where do you wanna go?" he asks reaching for a pair of skinny jeans and a band shirt.

"Let's get something to eat." I say and he turns around and stares at me.

"It's 1 A.M. and you want to eat?" he asks confused.

"I'm starving. I haven't eaten much in a few days. You lack sleep, I lack eating." I say walking out of the closet to let him get changed on his own. After a few minutes he comes out and his hair is still messy from laying in bed, the good kind of messy though, the kind that seems to be tousled just right. His wounds have started to fade but I still imagined them. I looked into his hazel eyes, the eyes that were once always filled with joy and shine, and I see emptiness and longing. I wondered what he saw when he looked into my eyes. Did he see the way I imagined being close to him again? Did he see the same emptiness I saw in his? Did he see the words I love you, the words I've been longing to say, scattering across my mind?

"Are you ready ba-" he stops. "Are you ready to go?" he says rubbing his shoulders with his neck. I give him a half hearted smile and he sticks out his hand but I don't take it.

"Yeah let's go". I say walking towards the door.

"Well then." I hear him say behind me. We both step quietly through the hall trying not to wake up the other guys. I click the elevator button and it is taking quite a while since there were a lot of fans staying at the hotel for the concert, staying up all night probably due to excitement, and people were staying in town for Mardi Gras, and they were up late partying most likely.

"Where are you guys going?" I hear someone say behind us. I turn around and see Luke rubbing his eyes.

"We're getting something to eat. Where are you going?" Ashton asks.

"Getting something to eat at 1 A.M.? I was going to get some ice from the ice machine, I have a headache." Luke explains.

"I need to get out of an enclosed area, and Ashton couldn't sleep." I say back. Luke looks both of us up and down and gives Ashton an icy look.

"Be careful out there Dani. I don't want you to get hurt." Luke says as he turns around and starts walking toward the ice machine. The elevator door opens and we step inside and go down to the lobby. There is a small hallway before we get to the lobby and as I step outside I start walking toward it but before I get to far Ashton throws his arm in front of me stopping me from moving.

"What?" I ask a bit annoyed.

"There might be fans out in the lobby, just let me go check real quick." Ashton says as he walks towards the lobby. I always forget that that is something they have to go through, of course they love seeing their fans but sometimes I can imagine it gets frustrating. After a few minutes he comes back.

"Where there any fans out there?" I ask.

"Just a few but they were surprisingly calm. Ready?" he asks. We both walk into the lobby and the fans he was talking about wave at me and greet me. I smile at them and their kindness and I exit the building. The streets are crowded with Mardi Gras people and the loudness is starting to frighten me. I clutch my hands in fists as I keep them to my sides. Then I feel Ashton's hand force open my fist, as he interlocks his fingers with mine. I look up at him and then I lean in close to him and I grip his arm tightly so that I don't lose him in the crowd.

"There's a small place down the street we can go to. I promise it'll be nice and quiet there okay." Ashton says squeezing my hand tighter. I nod my head as he guides me to a small cafe. We squeeze our way through a crowd of people in front of the entrance but once we get inside it is quiet and empty. I guess no one wants to be seen eating a muffin and drinking coffee on Mardi Gras. The waitress tells us that we can pick any table and we pick a table far away from the entrance. Ashton pulls out a chair and I sit down.

"Thank you." I say and he smiles at me.

"Of course." he says sitting down. We are both silent until we get our food.

"Aren't you going to eat anything Ash?" I ask him.

"No I'm fine." he says as he looks down to his hands and he rubs them together. I grab his hands and squeeze them tightly. He looks up at me.

"Please don't be sad Ashton. You can still talk to me." I say trying to reassure him. He pulls his hands out from underneath mine.

"This silence is killing me but I don't want to make you more sad than you already are with the sadness I'm feeling. " Ashton says softly.

"Ashton. Stop. You haven't lost me I'm still here. Ash look at me." I say lifting his head up with my hand. He flutters his eyes. "I feel like we got distant because we never opened up about things like this. So let's start now. It's quiet, private, none of the guys are here to interrupt us, neither of us can sleep anyway. I miss you more than anything Ash. I miss being with you. I miss telling you I lo... I just really want to make this right and it's not fair to put all the fixing on your shoulders. So let's be one hundred percent honest with each other right now. Okay?" I say and he looks at me, his hazel eyes have softened. He grabs my hands and squeezes them. He hesitates to say anything and he looks down squeezing my hands so tight that it almost hurts me. I can see him take a deep breath in. He takes a swallow. "Okay." he says nervously and softly.

He's silent for a moment and I think that he had already forgotten what he was about to say.

"So-"

"I trust you." He says, as if it were a fact. He looks up at me through his eyelashes and licks his lips. "You know that, right?" He asks. I nod and give his hand a reassuring squeeze. His hands were getting sweaty and he was starting to worry me. I knew he was hiding something all along but I didn't want to push him, I thought he would tell me when he was ready. "I know you've noticed that I've been hiding something from you." He looks at me and then glances down to my hands in his before looking back up. "And I know you've been patient, which is something I never could have done." he says. I tilts my head to the side, where was this going? "I think you kind of caught on a little at the beach." He stops and looks at me again nervously. I nod my head as if to say 'go on' and he continues. "I've never been 100% sure of myself. I've never felt like I could be me before I met the other guys. And I know they've helped me so much in my confidence but the one thing they could never really help me with was to feel sure of myself." He looks down at his shoes. I feel horrible having completely ignored this problem. I should have seen it. "Until I met you." He finishes, looking back at me.

"What?" I ask quietly, confused. He scootches closer to me and slouches in his seat, still looking up at me. "You've helped me more than you could ever know. You're sweet and humble and confident about who you are."

"I think you've got that wrong. I'm still learning who I am. And I will keep doing so for years to come. I'm not perfect." He shakes his head while smiling.

"You don't understand. To me, you're exactly that. Every little thing about you, I love. Every little thing you've done and every little thing that you will do, I will love. You've taught me to look at myself and learn. I've never been sure of myself but when I'm with you, I know I'm in the right place. I know I'm with the right person. I feel like I am exactly where I'm supposed to be. With you, I'm sure. With you," he pauses, blinking once, "I'm home." Your mind goes blank. How do I reply to that. Of course I felt the same, he was my rock, my anchor, it was just difficult at the moment to express those feelings.

"I-"

"Don't feel like you need to say anything. I know how I feel. Thanks to you I'm sure of how I feel." He smiles a little but then the smile fades. It's replaced by worry and sadness.

"But…" I say, now getting extremely worried. That wasn't it. That wasn't what he was hiding. "Ashton, what else is there? There's something else, what is it?" I ask placing my hand on his leg and shaking it a little to get his attention. He was still looking down as he spoke, "Before our date at the beach, I got a call." He looks up at me and I freeze.

"And. Who was it.?"

"I don't know, they didn't say."

"Well, what did they say?

Ashton moves his hands down on top his legs and he rubs them up and down as if he is trying to wipe the sweat away from them. He fidgets his legs bouncing them up and down. I wanted to grab his hands and hold them in mine but I couldn't.

"It's in the past it doesn't matter." Ashton says quietly.

"No Ashton stop. It's not in the past if it still bothering you. Stop pushing this stuff away. We are being honest with each other." I say agitated.

"I'm sorry I'm just good at pushing things away. I've pushed everything away my whole life. And I accidentally ended up pushing you away." Ashton says sadly.

"Then pull me back in." I say grabbing his hands underneath the table and locking them in mine. They were hot and sweaty and I could feel them shaking. I feel his leg start to shake even more than it was before and I see him squint his eyes shut.

"I didn't recognize the number or the person talking on the other end." he begins. "I asked who it was but they said nothing. I heard someone talking to them almost like someone was whispering to them and then they spoke." his voice was starting to shake. My heart is pounding fast, what could this person possibly of said to him. "They said things in short sentences. After every pause they made I heard the other person whisper. The person on the phone said that sooner or later the band won't need me anymore, sooner or later my contribution won't matter." I felt tears welling up in my eyes. "I didn't say anything back. I wasn't in the mood for fighting. The person continued and said that I was selfish for being happy and that they liked me better when I was sad and lost. But then-" he pauses and he looks up at me and his eyes are red. His body has become still. To still.

"But then what Ashton?" I say holding back tears.

"But then they listed a bunch of my insecurities, things I had only told a few people, and then they said that I was going to lose you, that you were going to slip away because I always push people away. They told me they were hoping for that" He stops and pauses. "I thought maybe protecting you from the other boys and keeping you by my side would stop me from pushing you away but I guess it didn't work." Ashton gets up from the table taking his wallet out of his back pocket and throwing a twenty dollar bill on the table. "That should cover it." Ashton says. I wasn't quite finished but I had the feeling he wanted to go back to the hotel. I get up and I reach out for his hand, at first he hesitates, but then he takes it and he holds it tight. As Ashton opens the door to the cafe the loudness of the streets has gone down a bit but there were still alot of people around, drunk people. Ashton grips my hand tighter and tighter and I look up to his face and he looks angry.

"Ashton?" I ask.

"Sorry it's just talking about that phone call just gets me agitated." he says firmly. We both reach the hotel and the lobby is thankfully empty. We walk down the long corridor and we both hop into the elevator. I haven't said a word to Ashton about what he said about the phone call. I didn't want to reply back in some cafe in New Orleans, I needed to talk to him somewhere more intimate. The elevator door opens and wee both walk down the corridor and then once we walk past the other three guys' room I can hear them talking.

"What are they up to?" Ashton says as he knocks on the door. "Guys?" he asks. Calum opens the door smiling and laughing.

"Hey you two how was eating?" Calum asks happily.

"It was fine. Nothing special." I say looking up at Ashton who looks down at me.

"Oh. Okay then do you guys want to come in?" Calum asks.

"No we're fine Calum I think we're just going to head to bed." Ashton replies back.

Then I see Luke come up from behind Calum.

"Nice to see you guys didn't get lost in the crowd." Luke says and Calum walks back into the room to talk to Michael. Ashton squeezes my hand tighter and tighter almost hurting me again. I look at Ashton's face and it is that same face he was making in the street on the way home. That face of anger.

"How was-"

"I told her about the phone call Luke." Ashton cuts Luke off. Luke's eyes become wide and he looks to me and back to Ashton.

"I umm-"

"You think we're ever gonna find that guy who called me, Luke?" Ashton says once again cutting Luke off. Luke's face becomes more relieved but it is still tense and red. Luke looks to me and then back to Ashton.

"I don't know. I hope so." Luke says quietly. Ashton tugs me away from the door leading me back to the hotel room. I glance over my shoulder and I see Luke running his hands through his hair in frustration.

"You told Luke about the phone call before you told me?" I say pulling my hand away from Ashton's grasp.

"It's complicated." Ashton says opening the hotel door. He goes and lays down on the bed hanging his legs over the edge. I take a deep breath and I was going to let that comment slide for now. I go over and sit criss cross on the bed above his head and I put my hands on his shoulders and I rub them gently. He looks up and gives me a small smile.

"Now that you were honest with me about one thing. I have to be honest with you about something." I say running my hands down his torso so that I an leaning in close to his face and I kiss him on the forehead. He sits up and rubs my cheek with his hand. It felt good feeling his light, gentle touch again.

"What is it Dan?" Ashton asks softly grabbing onto the hand on my lap and rubbing my palm softly with his thumb.


	23. Chapter 23

I sigh before I answer. "I just-" I stop myself. I'm not sure how he's going to react to this. It's not like I'm a drug addict or something, but part of my brain was begging me to keep it inside, to lie. I can't tell him. He'll see me differently, he'll hate me for lying, he'll be mad at me and I can't take it when he's mad.

I just go with the first thing that pops into my head. "Before I met you…" I start. Ashton immediately goes stiff, not knowing what to think of the situation. He remains quiet and I continue. "You know I wasn't originally an Ashton girl." I approach the conversation a little differently, hopefully convicing him. He nods. "That's changed completely now. I can't imagine being with anyone else, but…" I explain to him, unsure if he's buying it or not.

"But what?" He finally speaks up.

I hesitate again. I don't know! I'm thinking on my feet! I just need to make this convicing, he needs to believe me. I have a feeling he knew what I was going to say. I just hate having to use this as a way out. I want to tell him. I want to come clean, but... I don't know. This was a touchy topic and has been ever since we started dating, and we just started getting back to our usual selves, I don't want to ruin it with one stupid, cover-up lie.

"You know I was more of a Luke girl at the time, right?" God this is the worst possible explanation ever. His muscles loosen as he relaxes and licks his lips. His eyes are calm, happy almost, as if he didn't care, as if it didn't bother him.

"Yeah." Is all he says. I look down guiltily and sniff a couple of times to sell the story. Looks like high school drama actually paid off for once. I look back up and try to stop myself from looking him in the eyes, because I know he'll know I'm lying if I look at him.

"Well, when you first asked me out on a date," I look back at my hands, god this is stupid. "I kind of wanted it to be him to be asking me." I look back at him and he rubs my hands, smiling at me. Why is he smiling? Ok, more convincing! "But that was months ago! I can't even imagine what my life would have been without you! I can't even imagine being with him instead! I promise it was just naïve me being a selfish jerk." I look at him, worried that he would see right through the lie. Well, it was kind of a lie. What I was telling him was true but not what I really wanted to be telling him.

He just chuckles and strokes my cheek with his hand. "It's ok." I try to look shocked, as if I was expecting a different reaction. Then again, I wasn't expecting him to just be completely ok with it. "I mean, it's not like you still feel this way right?" He grins at me, raising an eyebrow.

"Well…" I say, messing with him a little. He hits me on the arm lightly.

"That's not even close to funny." He says seriously but jokingly at the same time. We laugh a little until he continues to talk. "Well, that wasn't too bad. I guess we-"

"That's not it." I cut him off, the smiles from both our faces fading. I need to tell him.

"Oh. Well, what else is there?" The mood in the room suddenly drops to an all-time low. Fuck. I can't tell him. What will he think of me? But what else is there to tell him? I can't think of anything else! I look down and start fidgeting with my hands, I guess we both do that when we're nervous.

He grabs my hands and pulls them from my lap. I can't tell him. "Babe? What is it? What's wrong?" My heart jumps a little when he calls me that. He pulls me towards him, into his chest and wraps his arms around me. "What's wrong? You can tell me." He says seriously.

I pull back and wipe my eyes, trying to 'compose' myself. "It's nothing serious, I was just..." I pause. I sniff one more time to get my point across and start again. "Ever since that interview where we cleared up the whole ' _me and Luke_ ' thing, I was grateful that you guys put so much effort into making me feel safe and at home."

He holds my hands tightly and draws circles on the back of them with his thumbs. "We're always here for you Dani, especially me."

I smile at his reply and continue. "I know," I sniff, "and I couldn't have asked for anyone better but," I pause, my smile fading, "since the interview I've been checking the internet to see how people were reacting…" I trail off.

"Oh God. Dani, why'd you do that? I told you not to." He gives me a pitiful look and I immediately felt like a child when my parents were giving me the whole 'I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed' talk. Jesus, I didn't think he'd take this one so seriously.

"I'm sorry ok? I just, I wanted to know if people believed it!" I 'get' exasperated as he pulls me back in. "But they didn't, not all of them." I say quietly into his chest.

He kisses my head. "I know. I was hoping you wouldn't see it. I don't know what else to do, I've explained to every fan we've met. Some of them believe me, some of them don't." He tries to explain to me. He's too sweet.

I sit on the bed in his arms for a moment before I finish your 'story'. "Remember when I went shopping in Vegas and you went out with the guys?" He nods. "This girl came up to me and started asking these questions, some of them were pretty rude but the one that got me was when she said, "Are you really dating Luke?"" I pause. This art was true. At least not everything was a lie. "I wanted to scream at her. I wanted to set her straight but I knew it would back-fire on you so I stopped myself." He strokes my hair telling me to continue. "I tried explaining to her that it was a mix-up by the press. She nodded and walked away but I heard her whisper to her friend." I stop.

"What- what did she say?" He asks carefully, not sure it was 'safe' to do so.

"Slut." I whisper. This time, letting the emotions flow through me. I start feeling the tears roll down my face. I never thought that I'd be the one to be so affected by this. It's just, none of them know who I am, yet they hate me. What have I done wrong?

He wipes the tears from my eyes and pecks my lips. I look back down, hoping to hide my red eyes and smudged make-up form him, but he just lifts my face up with his finger.

"They don't know what they're saying. They're just basing their opinions on what they hear on the internet. Just know, those who don't believe us are just saying that because they're jealous of us. They're jealous that we're happy and they're jealous that we're in love. I know the truth. I know you, the real you. And I couldn't have fallen for a more perfect girl." I smile and kiss him. How could I not after what he had just said?

His thumb gently strokes my cheeks as we kiss and the butterflies in my stomach return. I pull away and smile lightly at him. "Is that true?" I ask him.

"What?"

"That we're happy? That we're in love."

He looks at me, glancing down at my lips and back up at my eyes. "I don't know, you tell me."

I smile a little, "Yes."

*** The Next Morning ***

I open my eyes only to be blinded by a beam of sun shine filtering through the curtains. I lift my head from Ashton's chest and realize that we must have fallen asleep in our clothes, not to mention we were both still over the covers. After last night and the conversations we had, Ash and I must've been too tired to get into bed.

I smile looking at him, I'm happy that he was sleeping, he needs it. NO matter what he says, he was exhausted last night. He looked so peaceful, so innocent. If someone were to walk in and see him sleeping right now, they'd never guess the things he's been through these past couple of months. His eyes were closed but I could still imagine their hazel colour contrasting his sharp features. They were almost like a beacon to me, whenever I was feeling lost, I could always look into them, and somehow, I could find my way. I guess that's what scared me most about becoming distant. I became lost, but then again, so did he. I couldn't find my beacon. It was as if it had been put out by an unexpected gust of wind. But now, now it was coming back and I could see the light again, shining brighter than before.

I run my fingers through his fair, twirling bits and pieces through my fingers. It was weird how all my life I could live without a person and then suddenly, can't imagine my life without them.

There's a knock at the door. I panic momentarily; I was worried it was going to wake Ashton. I didn't want him to wake up as it was only 8 A.M. Not to mention the fact that he had been restless for so many nights. Luckily he was still fast asleep.

I tip toe towards the door and look through the peep hole to see Luke. I slowly open the door, careful to make sure it doesn't make a sound and slide my body through it, leaning the door against its' frame behind me. "Sorry, Ashton's still sleeping and I didn't want to wake him up, he hasn't been sleeping well." I say whispering.

"Oh, okay then I'll just come back later." Luke says, turning around and walking away.

"Wait, Luke" I say causing him to turn his head back to face me.

"Yeah?" He asks.

"Why did Ashton tell you about that phone call he got that night we were on the beach before he told me?" I ask, like Luke would know the answer to that, but it was worth a shot asking him.

Luke's face becomes red again, just like it did last night, and he rubs the sides of his legs with his hands. "I...I really don't know the answer to that." he says nervously.

"It's okay. I guess it doesn't matter, but I just don't understand who would do something like that. He didn't tell me everything they said but it was enough to make me believe that whoever did this must be-" I stop because I knew if I continued I would get emotional. I just shake my head. "Do you need to talk to Ashton?" I ask him, changing the subject.

"Yeah I kind of do, but it's okay it's not that important. I can wait. But also can you remind him he has a writing session before the show tonight with Calum at 3?" Luke says.

"No." I say sternly. Luke looks at me confused, holding his breath. "I'm just kidding Luke, of course I'll tell him." I say laughing a bit. I decided it was important to stop not being happy whenever I was around Luke. The truth of the matter is that I can't change the past and I know he didn't mean for any of this to happen. He deserves better than the way I've been treating him.

Luke lets out a sigh of relief and grins. "Good one." He says, laughing uneasily as he turns around and walks down the hallway. Huh.

I turn around and put my hand on the door knob to open the door, but it doesn't budge. Shit. The door must've slammed closed behind me and I genius-ly didn't have a room key. I didn't want to wake Ashton so I guess it's a good thing I fell asleep in my clothes. Luckily this was a hotel and getting a room key was an easy fix.

I go down to the lobby and go to the front desk. "Hi, I'm really sorry but I'm in room 707 and I got locked out. Do you think you could make a new room key please?" I ask politely.

"Of course Ma'am what is the last name of the room?" The man asks me.

"It should just be under the name 5 Seconds of Summer: rooms 710 and 707." I reply.

"Thank you ma'am, just give me one moment." he says as he takes out a plastic card and puts it into one of those special devices. After a few seconds he hands me the card.

"Thank you so much." I say relieved, as I walk to the buffet breakfast they had laid out. I really wasn't that hungry but I grabbed a few pieces of fruit and some yoghurt cups to bring back up the room for later.

I get back up to the room and see a pair of ripped skinny jeans lying on the floor with a band shirt thrown lazily on top. At first I was confused until I saw a little lump in the bed with messy curls sticking out from under the covers. I set the food down on the bedside table and slide underneath the blankets, wrapping my arms around his body. He was warm, unusually warm. He tries to grab my hand, but I pull it away and push him so that he's lying on his back. I take the back of my hand and place it on his forehead.

"What are you doing?" He says with a raspy voice.

"You're hot"

"Oh, why thank you." He replies cheekily, smirking at me.

I shake my head. "You feel hot Ash, I think you might have a fever." I say worryingly.

He closes his eyes and swallows. "I'm fine." he says back.

"Ashton please, you're burning up. This is what happens when you don't get enough sleep." I say as I take my shirt off so I can pat the sweat away from his forehead.

He gives me a cheeky smile and he puts his hand to my cheek. "I should get sick more often." He says giving me a silly grin. I just roll my eyes and smile.

"You're funny." I say.

"I have a writing session and then a show, do you think I'll be okay by then doc?" He asks, a bit more seriously.

I giggle a little. "I think so, as long as you stay in bed until you have to leave with Calum." I say.

"Will you stay with me?" He whines.

"I will, but first I have to go to the drugstore and get you something to suppress your symptoms." I say, getting up before he grabs my arm and pulls me back down onto the bed.

"Why do I need anything, I'm just fine. You're my cure." He says cheekily, pouting his lips.

"Because real medicine will make you feel better. And if you rest then you'll feel a lot better. So I am going to go." I say smiling and get up from the bed. "And you should try to get some more sleep, ok?" He nods in response.

I throw on the shirt that was lying on the ground, because I didn't want to put mine back on for obvious reasons, and I wasn't bothered to have to sift through my suitcase to find another one to wear. His was huge on me, but I don't really care, it's just a walk down the street.

I grab my phone and my purse and walk over to Ashton's side of the bed, pulling the covers back over him. His eyes are already closed as I lean down and kiss his forehead.

"I'll be right back." I whisper.


	24. Chapter 24

I grab the card key and head out. It's a pretty nice day, no need for a jacket; not that I brought one anyway. Our hotel's in the centre of the city so it shouldn't be hard to find a pharmacy.

After walking for a couple of minutes I find a CVS and go in. With help from the pharmacist, I pay for a quick over-the-counter fever killer. It wasn't the cheapest thing but then again, medicine will rob you blind.

On my way back to the hotel, I walked past a bakery and decided to get the guys something sweet. I heard about the ben – beignet, things. I don't know, these French sweets and got them some.

Once I was back in the hotel I knocked on the guys' room first. Michael opens the door and greets me. "Hey Dani! What's up?"

"Nothing much, I was just out getting Ash some medicine and I passed by this bakery, so I thought I'd bring you guys something."

"Awww, thanks Dani." He replies

"No problem." I hand him the bag as he greedily looks into it.

"Wait, why does Ashton need medicine?" Calum asks from the inside of the room.

"Oh, he hasn't been sleeping well lately and I think his body has finally crashed. He's got a little fever but he should be fine by tonight." I explain.

"Oh, ok. Well I hope he feels better." Calum replies.

I was about to leave the room when Michael's voice stops me. "Speaking of, how are you and Ashton?" I blush a little but luckily had my back to them.

"Bro!" Luke whisper-shouts and hits him in the arm.

"Ow! What was that for?" Michael asks, also whispering.

"You don't need to ask her! They're on the rocks, remember?!"

"So I'm not allowed to ask?" They both whisper back and forth and Calum kind of watches them, clearly annoyed.

"Actually, we're better now." I say turning around, causing them to stop talking and look at me. Luke looks down a little but smiles back up at me.

"That's good." Calum says. "So no more sleeping all day?" He asks me, teasingly.

"No, I promise. I won't lie in bed all day." I say mockingly, rolling my eyes.

"Well she might be in bed all day but for a completely different reason, right?" Michael says winking at me.

"And the sex jokes return. I will admit, I did not miss this." I say blushing.

Luke hits him again. "Seriously?"

"What? Not my fault you can't take a joke." I laugh awkwardly and say goodbye to the boys.

Once I do, I go back to Ashton's and my room. "Hey." I say quietly as I walk in and close the door behind me; I didn't want to be too loud in case he was still sleeping. His eyes are closed and he has a hand on his forehead, someone hasn't gotten any better. "Hey babe. How are you feeling?" I ask as I sit down on the bed.

"Not good." He groans, opening his eyes and looking at me. "But I'm better now." He smiles cheekily.

I smile at the comment and put my hand on his cheek. "I'm glad to hear it." I say stroking his cheek with my thumb. He lifts his hands and puts them over the hand that's on his cheek, looking into my eyes.

"I love you." He says dreamily. I smile and take his hand and kiss the back of it. I hold both his hands in mine and interlock our fingers.

"I love you too." I say. He smiles and closes his eyes again. He was happy. We were back to normal, or for the most part, and I felt safe again.

We're both silent for a moment until I remember the medicine I had gotten for him. "Oh, I almost forgot! You need to take this." I say, getting the bottle out of the bag and standing up to get some water.

"Ewww no! Babe don't ruin such a perfect moment with medicine!" He whines.

"No," I say from the bathroom while rummaging through the cabinets. "You need to take this." I walk out of the bathroom with a glass of water in hand and place it on the bedside table.

"Ugh, you got the liquid kind? Do you want me to die?" He asks seriously. I roll my eyes playfully and try to take the seal off the bottle.

"Well that's what you get for not sleeping enough." I say, opening the bottle.

"Well how do you expect me to fall asleep without the love of my life lying next to me?" He asks in a dramatic tone. I laugh a little and pour the funky liquid into the spoon.

"Ok Prince Charming, open up." I say as I sit down on the bed next to him as he sits up. He closes his mouth and shakes his head 'no'. I sigh. "Come on, for me?" I beg. He slowly opens his mouth allowing me to move the spoon towards it.

"But only for you." He says before he takes the medicine in one gulp. His face contorts signaling me to hand him a glass of water. He chugs it down and gives me the glass.

"There we go, that wasn't too hard now was it?" I ask, cooing him.

"That was awful, remind me never to let you buy me medicine ever again."

I laugh. "Ok, whatever you say." I kiss his forehead and sit down next to him. He lies down again and rests his head on my shoulder.

It's silent for a while until he speaks up. "Thanks for taking care of me."

I smile and run my hand through his hair. "Always." I say in response, causing him to smile.

"By the way, that shirt looks great on you." He says, motioning to my chest. I forgot I was still wearing his shirt. I blush.

"Thanks. I stole it from my boyfriend." I say, making him chuckle.

Ashton fell asleep shortly after he took his medicine, I guess drowsiness was a side-effect. I set my alarm for 2:30 so that I could wake him up in time to go to the writing session with Calum; that is if he feels good. I turn on the TV and turn it down so that I can barely hear the people on the screen. I wasn't really interested in what was playing, I was really just perusing through the channels because I was bored.

I lean my head on the headboard of the bed and feel my eyelids become heavy. Right before I could fall asleep, I see Ashton's phone light up and buzz once. I get up so that I can turn it off and I barely see that Luke had sent him a text. I don't want to be that girl who goes through her boyfriend's phone and I'm not, but I did read the first half of the message that popped up on the lock screen… on accident.

The message read:

"You had the chance to tell her and you didn't-" and then it cut off. I set the phone down and take in a deep breath. Why was it that every time I thought I knew the whole story there was a whole other part of it waiting to be uncovered. I was starting to think that the guys liked to make things as complicated as they fucking could. I set his phone down and I crawl back into bed not getting under the covers and I lean over Ashton's body and I see that he is dripping sweat. Good that means he broke his fever. I get up and go into the bathroom and grab a towel. I get back on the bed and I carefully slide the covers off of Ash. Luckily he was sleeping on his back so I didn't have to wake him in order to turn him around. Carefully and lightly, trying not to wake him, I begin to pat the sweat off of his forehead and his torso. I've had broken sweat in my sleep once before and I know how awful it os to wake up dripping in it and I want Ashton to be comfortable. Just like he would want me to be comfortable. Once I was finished I get underneath the covers and I lay part of the blanket on his torso and I rest my head against it, feeling the rhythm of his heartbeat. I close my eyes and drift off to sleep.

*TWO AND A HALF HOURS LATER*

I awaken by Ashton rubbing my arms and kissing me on the forehead. I notice that his torso has been replaced with a pillow and that his torso has been covered with a shirt. I look up at him and ask "what time is it?".

"Two forty, Calum just texted me I have to meet him in the lobby." Ashton says buckling his belt.

"Are you feeling better?" I ask, I didn't want him to push himself anymore than he already has.

"I'm fine babe. I'll see you at the show tonight." he says.

"Wait you're not coming back to the hotel before sound check?" I ask a bit disappointed that I was going to have to wait four hours to see him again.

"Yeah. it's just that writing is a process babe and-"

"It has never taken you four hours to write a song Ashton. And usually if a song takes that long you use two writing sessions." I say a bit harshly. He looks down to his hands and then back at me.

"Well I guess we've decided to do it differently today." he says and then a buzz. "That's Calum, I really have to go." he leans down and kisses me on the lips "I'll see tonight okay. I love you." Ashton says as he leaves the hotel room. I hadn't been to one of their shows in days and now I had to get a ride to the show all alone. Fabulous. What was I going to do for four hours all alone. I promised Cal I wasn't going to lay around sleeping all the time anymore and because Cal seems to be the only 'just a good friend' that I have I don't want to break any promises with him no matter how mediocre they are. So instead of sleeping in the hotel room I decide to read in the hotel room. I grab the book I have been reading from my backpack and I have to go back a few chapters because over the past couple days I hadn't been paying much attention to it when I read. I was merely using it as a distraction piece to avoid certain things. I grab my book and I start to read, this time I am going to focus.

 *****TWO MORE HOURS LATER*****

"Writing is going great with Calum! I'm really proud if this song we're writing babe. I'll see you soon. Love you." is the text message I recieve from Ashton. I smile, I was happy that he was starting to be more himself again. I hear a slight knock at the door and I open it and I unexpectedly see Calum standing there. "Calum?" I ask confused. He jokingly looks down at his feet and pats his body around.

"I think I'm Calum...unless I'm just a clone. OH GOD!" He says jokingly.

"What are you doing here?" I ask.

"I was just going to pick you up so we could go maybe grab something to eat with Michael and we can take you to the venue." Calum says a bit confused by my question.

"I thought you had a writing session with Ash."

"I did have a writing session with Ashton. That ended a half an hour ago." Calum says giving me an odd look.

"But Ash told me the session was going to take longer than 2 hours and he just texted me saying he was still with you." I say flustered.

"No Ashton's with Luke."

"What? Why is he with Luke?" I ask, now I was completely befuddled.

"That's a good question. Luke picked him up from the session and I asked him the same thing you're asking me and he said that they were going to grab something to eat and talk about somethings." Calum says. I check my wallet for the room key and when I see that I have it I close the door behind me and I start walking down the hall, Calum following behind.

"Why couldn't Ashton just tell me he was going out with Luke?" I ask.

"I'm not sure maybe because you ask a lot of questions." Calum says laughing.

"I do not ask that many questions. I am just a very curious person." I say confidently.

"Mhm sure sometimes nosy looks like curious you know." Calum says laughing again but I don't.

"I'm serious Calum." I say stopping in my tracks.

"Does it matter, look I'm sure that maybe they're working things out between them and maybe he didn't tell you because he doesn't want you to worry about that dumb ass issue anymore." Calum says seriously.

"I guess." I say. "Unless this has something to do with the text." I say under my breath.

"What was that?" Calum asks.

"Nothing, where do you want to eat?" I ask and Michael comes out from the hotel room wrapping his arm around me.

"Hey girl what's up." he says making me smile.

"Not much just the usual." I say smiling up at him.

"Well I know you weren't up to your usual because Ashton isn't around." he says and I push him off.

"Whatever." I say giggling.

"Come on let's go! The more time we spend here the less time we have to eat." Calum says motioning his hands towards the elevator.

"Alright, alright so pushy." Michael says throwing his hands up. I roll my eyes at them and smirk. Then I think about what Ash and Luke could possibly be talking about alone together and Calum notices my sudden look of weariness. He puts his hand on my shoulder and squeezes it, I look up at him and he gives me a small nod and smiles.

"I have a feeling it is going to be a fun night." Calum says but I wasn't sure whether or not he was being sarcastic or trying to reassure me.

"More like a long night." I say smiling back up at him and he just shakes his head at me and laughs.

The three of us end up eating in a little café next to this cute street with a bunch of colorful houses. Calum and Michael were talking about something but I can't seem to focus. My mind keeps wondering to the text and why Ashton would have lied to me. Part of me was a little mad that he lied to me right after we both promised to be honest. Well, I didn't say it exactly but we told each other all our secrets, or at least I thought we did. But then again I didn't tell him everything about me. But that is different, I'm keeping things from him that I will keep forever and he is most likely keeping the dumbest secret ever. I am pretty damn confused.

"Hello? Earth to Dani. Is everything ok up there?" Calum asks, waving his hand in front of my face. I break of my train of thought and look at the two of them.

"Hmm?" I ask looking back at them, hoping they couldn't tell what I was thinking about.

"Are you ok? You've been dazed this entire time." Michael asks, for once asking a serious question.

"Yup, uh huh, I am super fine. I am better than fine. I'm great. I'm perfect. Yeah. Awesome. Fine, I'm... I am fine." I say trying to get them off your back.

"Wow. Ok, one more time and I'll believe you." Calum says sarcastically.

"I'm fine." O say. The guys are quiet for a moment until I open my mouth. "Why is he with Luke? What the hell is he hiding from me?" I ask them, as if they would know. "I mean, if he were planning something he would tell you, right? But no, he's just with Luke." The guys give me this 'you're crazy' look and dare at me with wide eyes.

"Ok Dani. I think it's time for you to talk to him. Yeah? Yeah. Sounds good. Good plan." Calum says and gets up from the table.

"We need to head out anyway." Michael says, also standing up. I reluctantly leave the café after the guys pay, even though I told them that they didn't have to pay for me. We drive to the venue and I anxiously sit in the back, going over different scenarios in my head. Once we get to the arena I'm lead out of the car and to backstage. Should I tell him that I know he wasn't song writing or should I just hint it or pretend like nothing's wrong or should I be really mad at him or should I be mad at Luke? Oh for fucks sake. I get to the dressing room and see that Ash and Luke aren't back yet. I get my phone and decide to text him.

"Hey, where are you? We're at the venue. I'm worried about you, call me. Love you." I sent the text and waited for 20 minutes, still no reply. Now I was getting really worried. It never took him that long to answer my texts, especially if I was in the same time zone. If he couldn't answer his phone or something he would have texted me before hand. I was about to call him when Luke comes into the room, not looking very happy. "Luke!" I stand up and walk to him, "where's Ashton?" I ask. He furrows his eyebrows and looks up at me.

"He should be on his way, he went to go pick something up." He smiles at me and walks away. That was the most fake smile I have ever seen on him. Something was still bothering him, and it wasn't his feelings towards me. I had a feeling it was something to do with the text and the call Ashton mentioned yesterday. They were hiding something from me and I didn't like it, not one bit. I waited on the couch for 5 more minutes until Ashton finally walked through the door.

"Hey babe! Sorry I'm so late," he hugs me and kisses me quickly. "I went to pick something up for you." He pulls something out of his pockets and hands me a little envelope. I look up at him a little confused and open the envelope. Inside I find two tickets to the Preservation Hall.

"WHAT!? How did you get these?! This is amazing!" I grab his neck and pull him in for a kiss. I had completely forgotten why I am mad at him before.

"And as you can see, there are two tickets in there so you can go with one other person of your choice." He winks at me and nudges my elbow, hinting towards him.

"Hmmm... Maybe Michael would like to go, I know he's into all kinds of music." I tease him and he hits me lightly and wraps his arms around me. He kisses me and leans his head against my forehead. "Ok, maybe you can come with me." We both laugh a little. How could I ever be mad at this boy?


	25. Chapter 25

**Luke's POV**

I finally got done getting changed and having to go through stage prepping and I go back into the dressing room to get some alone time. I was not in the best mood at the moment, that talk with Ashton today was stressing me out and I couldn't stop thinking about it. At first it seemed like a fine discussion about an issue and then we always end up fighting in the end. But this time it was different, it wasn't us being selfish jackasses fighting over Daniella, well it kind of was, but all the fights before had been different somehow, this time things got personal and took a turn for the worst. I walk into the backroom and who else could possibly be sitting there but the one person who is making my life miserable yet meaningful at the same time, Dani. I look at her but I don't want her to ask me questions because I know she can tell that I'm upset, she was good at that.

"Luke." she says and I breath in a bit before turning around to look at her.

"What?" I say a bit too harshly, but I couldn't help it at this point everything I said was harsh.

"Is something wrong?" she asks, she never asked that, well she did but only when she knew the answer to that question was yes.

"No, everything's fine why?" I say because I couldn't tell her what was wrong, not just now, but ever, the thing that was bothering me is something I will never tell anyone not even Calum or Michael. It's something I regret but what's worse is I regret it for the wrong reasons.

"Just wondering is all. What did you have to talk to Ashton about?" she says giving me a smirk and raising her eyebrows.

"We just wanted to talk about getting things back on track. You and his' relationship isn't the only one that got distant." I say but I can tell she knows I'm totally bullshitting her.

"Well I'm glad you two are starting to try and work things out. For a second I thought you guys were happy you hated each other. I'm gonna go find Ash." she says in a monotone voice. She throws a quick smile at me and leaves the room. I run my hands through my hair and I sit down on the couch where she was sitting. I'm so tired of this. I'm tired of being angry and upset about everything. But I couldn't help it, even after all this shit I am still in fucking love with her.

Daniella's POV

Luke always makes things so tense and to be honest quite frustrating. I find Ash sitting by the very back of the stage and when he sees me he smiles. I smile back at him and I jog towards him. I sit down next to him and I lean my head on his chest and he kisses the top of my head.

"I'm so happy you're back here. I missed seeing you on the sidelines babe." he says and I blush.

"I missed being on the sidelines." I answer back. He starts to rub my arms and we are both silent for a while taking in the moment and looking out to the seats watching all the fans enter. "I remember the first time I walked into the arena to see you guys perform." I say quietly. I look up into his hazel eyes and he is smiling at me. "I thought that being there seeing you guys doing what you loved to do was the happiest I would ever be, little did I know I was way wrong." I say and Ashton leans down and kisses me and I place my hand on his cheek and slowly move it through his hair. "So, I've always been curious. What was the process you went through before you decided to ask me out?" I asked trying to take my mind off of the real questions like why did you lie about talking to Luke and what that fucking text message meant. He let's out an uncomfortable laugh and he rubs his shoulder with his hand.

"I umm, I had to sneak my way around quite a few fans in order to find you. I remember thinking I was never going to find you in that huge crowd and I thought that maybe you had already gone. So I decided to walk back and then in the corner of my eye I saw you walking towards the lot. My heart, and I'm not saying this metaphorically when i say, it skipped a beat. I jogged as fast as I could over to you and I honestly had no idea what I was doing or what I was going to say to you I just knew i had to give it a shot. So I did." he says playing with my hands. I was about to say something but then I look up and you see Luke. Of course.

"We're on in 3 minutes Ashton. Let's go." Luke says and then he turns around and walks off. Ashton let's out a frustrated sigh and he places a kiss on my cheek.

"Alright, I'll see you after the show babe." he says running off. I smile a bit and I go to the side of the stage to watch the show.

Ashton's POV

"We're on in 3 minutes Ashton. Let's go." Luke says annoyingly as ever. I let out a frustrating sigh and I turn to look at Dani. God it felt so amazing to be close to her again. I almost lost her, and that feeling I had of losing her was the worst feeling I had ever felt. I was scared, miserable, and alone all at the same time. All the negative feelings that went away whenever I was with Dani came rushing back and I didn't have her to get me through them. But I felt like a complete hypocrite about lying to her today. But I had to. I kiss her on the cheek,

"Alright, I'll see you after the show babe." I say and I get up and walk off. My head was filled with so many things. It was filled with thoughts of the music, her, Luke. The conversation I had with Luke today was a conversation I never thought I would have. I couldn't stop wrapping my head around it, I was worried Dani was going to ask me about it sooner or later and I didn't want her too. This was a private issue that would be better off kept secret for the benefit of everyone. Especially Luke.

*After The Concert*

I walk to the back room after the concert to find Daniella. I find her sitting on the couch talking to Calum with a smile on her face. She's so beautiful when she smiles, I missed that. I stop at the doorway and just stand there for a while, watching her. She's the kind of person you can look at for hours and not help but wonder what's she's thinking of. I smile a little and think of all the memories we've had. Our first date, our first kiss, the first time we said we loved each other, and most recently, our first time. She notices me standing by the door and smiles. She gets up and walks to me, wrapping her arms around my neck, I rest my hands on her waist.

"You did really well tonight." She smiles at me.

"Thank you, it's just because I had a very important audience member tonight." I say to her causing her to blush. She was adorable when she blushed. I love that I have that affect on her. Even after 6 months of dating she still gets embarrassed. It was 11 by now but I wasn't tired. I was still buzzing from the show and I really wanted to catch up on the time I missed with Dani. Plus, I really need to take my mind off of Luke and the phone call. "So, the show starts at midnight, should we head out, or...?" I ask gripping her waist. I pull her closer and she starts to giggle.

"Mhmm." She says laughing a little. I kiss her nose and grab her hand.

"Let's go then."

Daniella's POV

Ash and I decided to walk to the Preservation hall since it wasn't too far from the arena. We walk hand in hand and keep light conversation throughout the walk.

"Thank you so much for taking me to this. I know it may not be your favourite thing to do but-"

"Hey, anything you like, I like too. Besides, if it means I get to spend more time with you, then I'd do anything and everything you can imagine." I look at him surprised.

"Wow, someone's feeling extra charming today." He laughs,

"Well you know me, charming as always." He kisses my head and gives my hand a squeeze. We walk by a couple of clubs and such and see a bunch of crazy people dressed up in crazy clothes. Some guy walks up to us with a sign in his hand.

"Hey, are you looking for some temporary companionship? We've got the best girls in town." He addresses Ashton.

"Um, no thank you." He awkwardly declines. The guy walks away and we continue walking. We both start laughing awkwardly at the guys proposition.

"Are you sure you don't want strippers? Who knows, I might not be up for it tonight." I joke. He grabs my waist and pulls me close, whispering in your ear.

"Trust me, I'll make sure you are." I blush and bite my lip. Before we can go into anymore depth on the topic I remember the text and what he had kept from me earlier today.

"Hey babe, why didn't you tell me the writing session ended early?" I ask innocently, not meaning to start an argument. He stops laughing but is still smiling, a bit forcibly, but he's still smiling.

"I'm sorry, I just went out with Luke, we wanted to sort out a couple of things." He looks at me giving me a reassuring look.

"I thought we talked about lying to one another?"

"I wasn't lying babe. I just- I didn't want you to worry. We're fine. Luke and I are practically back to normal." He smiles at me innocently. Liar. From what I saw today, that wasn't true, Luke was upset about something and before he went to talk with Ash, he seemed fine. I was about to ask him another question until we reached the hall.

"Oh, we're here. You got the tickets?" He asks me.

"Uh, yeah." I give them to him and smile a little. We walk into the hall and take a seat in the very front on the floor. He sits behind me and I sit in between his legs. He wraps his arms around me and rests his head on my shoulder. He kisses my cheek from behind and grabs my hand with his. We wait for the show to start and before we know it, the 7 musicians walk out and sit right in front of us. Once they start playing I forget everything. The music is beautiful and upbeat. Ashton also seems entranced by the spell. The man's voice is deep and lovely to the ears. After the show finishes the we stay seated for a while. That was a amazing. Ashton finally gets up behind me and offers me a hand. I take it and leave the room.

"That was amazing." He says as we walk hand in hand back to the hotel.

"Yeah." I reply, still speechless from the performance.

"How about we make this night even better?" He whispers in my ear.

"No," I laugh a little nervously, "I'm not in the mood." I say looking down.

"I can change that." He replies seductively into my ear. I laugh,

"Oh god. I don't know if I want to know what you're thinking."

"I'm always thinking about you." He smiles.

We get back to the hotel around 2:30 A.M. Before we walk inside the hotel room he leans me up against the hotel room door kissing me passionately. I kiss him back and I tug tight at his hair and I move my hands down his back. Without pulling his lips apart from mine he slowly takes one hand and pulls out the key card from his back pocket and opens the door. He opens it slowly as he supports the small of my back so that I don't fall backwards. Unexpectedly he swoops me up bridal style and I giggle and he smiles at me. He throws me down onto the bed and he climbs on top of me, he grabs my hands and pulls them above my head and I intertwine my fingers with his as his kisses start to move down my body. I pull my hands away from his and I place them on his shoulders. They were one of my favorite features about him, they were so strong and muscular and whenever I had my arms wrapped around them I felt safe. I could feel his shoulder blades supporting his torso above me and I let out a soft moan as he moved down to my collar bones. I missed the emotional aspect of being with Ashton but I couldn't help but miss the physical things as well like the way he kissed me and how he touched me gently and delicately.

"I missed you so much." Ashton says. "I missed your smile, your laugh, your eyes, your warmth-" he pauses and gives me a seductive grin. "your body" he finished as he leans back in and he slips his hands under my back and he slowly moves them down as he continues to kiss me. My fingers dig into his back and I kiss him on the sides of his neck and on his shoulders. This felt right. But it also felt wrong because I know that deep down inside I am upset with him.

"Ashton wait." I say sighing. I had to talk about it now before we got back on the tour bus, no matter how badly I wanted to keep going.

"What's wrong?" he asks climbing off of me and sitting beside me.

"I just, I can't stop thinking about why you would lie about talking to Luke." I say hesitantly. He stands up and begins to pace. I was catching on that whenever something was up everyone in this band would pace. I didn't like it when people paced because pacing makes me anxious.

"It's really not my decision to tell you." Ashton finally answers.

"What are you talking about?" I say.

"I didn't tell you because Luke told me not to tell you. Luke wanted to have a conversation without anyone knowing. It was about something that...nevermind the point is is that I didn't want to lie to you Dan. Especially not after how I said I was going to be honest with you last night." Ashton replies back.

"Does the thing you talked about with Luke have anything to do with the text he sent you this morning?" I ask him.

"You went through my messages?" Ashton says angrily.

"No. Well kind of. But not really because technically I only read the little bit that pops up on the lock screen because your phone was buzzing and I didn't want it to wake you-"

"and what did that message say?" Ashton cuts me off, he has placed his hands on his hips and he is towering above me.

"It said 'you had the chance to tell her and you didn't.' and then the rest got cut off." I say. Ashton lowers his hands from his hips and he sits down next to me looking down at his hands. "What didn't you tell me Ash?" I ask desperately.

"I can't tell you. That's something Luke will have to do. And trust me you aren't going to get it out of him anytime soon." Ashton says softly.

"Is it bad. Is Luke okay?" I ask confused.

"HE'S FINE!" Ashton snaps but immediately grabs my hands and begins to rub them with his thumbs. "I'm sorry I didn't mean to shout. It's just that I don't want to see you get hurt anymore." Ashton says leaning me in towards him and I bury my head into his chest.

"If this is information that could hurt me shouldn't I know what it is?" I ask.

"Somethings are better off not ever knowing Dan." Ashton says kissing my head and running his hand through my hair. What the hell did that even mean? If this was information that could hurt me, I want to know before someone else does. I break away from Ashton's arms and I stand up.

"Well that's bullshit Ash-"

"Dan." "No. Don't Dan me. I'm going over there right now. Why don't I deserve to know something that will hurt me? Last time someone didn't tell me anything I ended up on the front cover of a magazine and was labeled the 5sos whore." I say as I walk towards the door and I swing it open and Ashton runs behind me. I walk fast down the hallway and then I bang on Calum, Michael, and Luke's door. I knew they were awake because I could hear the television.

"Luke you open this door right now or-" I am cut off by Calum swinging the door open.

"Daniella what's wrong." Calum asks looking up at Ashton but I ignore his question and I barge into the bedroom. "You tell me right now why you're so upset!" I say in a loud voice. Luke stands up from the bed and looks over at Ashton and then back at me.

"I told you I was fine." Luke replies in shock.

"Oh please Luke you don't think that by now I've gotten pretty talented at calling out you guys' bullshit. Give it up and tell me." I say and Ashton walks over and grabs my arm.

"He's never going to tell you Dan. Unless he wants to lose you." Ashton says and he looks down to the floor immediately as if he said it on accident.

"What?" I say and at this point my head was spinning.

"Nothing." Luke replies back.

"Can you all just shut the hell up!" Calum says furiously. "I'm sick and tired of listening to this constant fucking fighting! Luke this is ridiculous whatever the hell it is you're hiding just tell us. Because at this point whatever the hell it is you're hiding it can't be as bad as when you were hiding the fact that you were in fucking love with her!" Calum shouts.

"Well it is." Luke says back in a scarily quiet voice. He looks up at me and his eyes are glistening with tears. Luke walks out the door and Ashton follows him. I run up to catch him but he turns around,

"Just stay here. I'll talk to him." Ashton says stopping me before I leave the room.

"No we'll talk to him together. As a band." Calum says and Michael gets up from the bed and walks out the door and Calum and Ashton follow him closing the door behind them leaving me alone in the room. I sit down on the bed and I put my head in my hands pushing my hair back. I was starting to wonder whether this whole thing was making me stronger or making me weak.


	26. Chapter 26

**Calum's POV**

We walked out of the room and found a conference room down the hall. Once we were all inside I locked the door and looked at the two guilty faces in front of me.

"So, do either of you geniuses want to explain to me what the hell is going on?" I ask the two boys in front of me. This whole Daniella drama between the two of them was driving me insane, and I'm pretty sure it was doing the same to Dani. I was furious that they couldn't just stop and get along, for her sake. Ashton finally got his wish of having his girlfriend on tour with us and Luke gets to be close to her as well. They just need to grow a pair and man up.

Ashton looks at Luke a little angry but at the same time, he looks a little scared, whatever Luke's hiding can't be that bad.

"Come on guys, just tell us. We won't judge you for it. We're a band and more importantly we're brothers." Michael says next to me. The boys seem to think about it for a moment until Luke finally speaks up.

"I did something awful." Is all he says. Ashton clenches his teeth next to him and crosses his arms. He looks down so that I can't see his expression. My assumption is that Luke did something to Ashton, maybe even to affect his relationship with Dani.

"What did you do?" I ask, hoping he'll answer. Luke looks down and sits in one of the chairs by the long conference table.

"I hurt...Ashton. In a way I don't think I can ever fix." Luke says guiltily, rubbing his hands together.

"What do you mean?" Michael asks Luke and glances to Ashton.

Ashton uncrosses his arms and looks at Luke. "He didn't mean it. He was just confused and," he stops and takes in a deep breath, which makes it seem like it's taking a lot of will-power to say it, "He was in love with Dani."

Luke looks at Ashton kind of shocked, they must have not been at this point with their conversation earlier today. "Thanks but you shouldn't be forgiving me so easily." Luke says, taking his head out of his hands.

"Ok, what really happened? Why can't you tell Dani? Why will this make you lose her?" I ask, slowly getting frustrated but above all, confused.

"Luke called me and made some guy say bad things about me, which hurt. So he thinks that if Dani finds out, she'll hate him."

"The reason is that Ashton told her about it, but not who did it. Ashton told me how she reacted and according to what he's told me, she hates whoever did it. If she finds out that I was the one who did it, she'll never forgive me."

I think for a moment. "Wait, how can you be ok with hiding this from her?" I ask Ashton. "If you tell her that Luke was the person who did that then she would hate him, and you wouldn't have to worry about her running off with him. Plus, she's you're girlfriend, you shouldn't be keeping secrets from her."

"Dude!" Luke shouts at me, "I thought you were on my side!"

"I'm on no one's side aynmore. I'm just wondering. Logically, telling Daniella the truth would solve all of his problems." I say. I know I'm not being fair to Luke but I don't understand why Ashton is keeping this from her.

"Because, Dani cares about Luke, whether I like it or not. And I don't want her to hate him. He's done something for me that I could never do and that's give her up. I don't know how Luke does it. He watches me and Dani everyday. He sees her with me and I know that all I would do is regret the decision I made 7 months ago. He's been a true brother to me this entire time and all I've done is fight with him when in reality," he pauses for a moment, "I should be thanking him, for the rest of my life."

Luke smiles at him, they must have finally made up.

"Ok, that's great and all, but what do we tell Daniella?" Michael asks, breaking the peaceful silence. We're all quiet for a moment. None of us have an idea. We all know that telling her would just mean breaking the relationship between her and Luke. In the end, she might even make Ash choose sides.

"I'll tell her." Ashton says, out of the blue.

"What?" Luke says, jumping up from his seat. "I thought we just talked about this?! If she finds out she'll hate me! Look, I'm ok with her not loving me back but if she were to hate me," he pauses, "I don't think I could live with myself."

"Well you should have thought about that before you made the call." Michael says, trying to lighten the mood.

"Bro." I hit him in the arm, giving him an annoyed look. "Now's not the time." He shrugs and we all look back at Ashton.

"Look, if I'm the one to tell her then I can explain. I can tell her how I feel now and that it's ok. I won't let her be mad at you, Luke. You don't deserve it." Ashton says and Luke nods.

"Ok, well it looks like we cleared that up, lets go tell the lady then shall we?" I say.

Ashton looks at me. "My lady." He corrects me as we walk out the door back to our room.

Daniella's POV

I sit in the hotel room all alone trying to process everything. Right when things seemed to be going right they went wrong. We moved one step forward and then two steps back. I'm tired of it, but I'm not going to give up.

I rub my eyes with my hands forcing the tears to stay in. I lie down on my back and run my hands through my hair before letting out a loud scream of frustration. That causes my tears to break out. I was done keeping everything in, I just wanted to let it out. I found it odd how letting out my feelings of love for Ashton was so easy, so opening, but telling Ashton the things that made me hurt was so soul-crushing, neck choking even. All my life I wondered what love was, why it made people so happy and sad and lost at the same time. And now I don't have to wonder because I know. Being with the person you love was like living in an endless pool of happiness and serenity and then because you loved that person so much, whenever anything went wrong it was like that endless pool was drained. You would think it would take a lot to be able to drain something that was endless but when it came to love it was as if that endless pool was just a drop. And I will do anything to save that last drop. Because that drop contained my happiness, my reason, my everything, my Ashton.

I ball my hands into fists and I place them over my heart. I take a deep breath in as I'm finding it hard to breath. I close my eyes and I begin to zone out until I hear the door click open. I don't look up, I can't, until I feel strong arms wrap around me and pull me into his chest.

Ashton's POV

I held her close to me and could feel my t-shirt starting to get wet. I hated seeing her this way, she should never feel this way. I run my fingers through her hair and don't say anything for a long time. I know that if I tell her immediately she'll just be overwhelmed. I don't want to tell her at all, but I have too. Calum was right, she deserves to know. I think about the way she'll react, what will she think of Luke?

"Babe." I say softly. Her head lifts up from my chest to reveal her puffy, red eyes. I wipe away one last tear falling from her cheek and push a piece of hair behind her ear. "I'm going to tell you okay." I say.

"Okay." she replies, shaking.

"Today Luke and I talked about..." I pause. "Luke and I talked about the phone call from that night on the beach." I finally force myself to say.

"Why?" she asks confused.

"Because. It was Luke." I just say it because there was no point in sugar-coating it. She pulls herself away from my grasp and stares at me. She wipes both her cheeks and puts her hands down on her lap.

"What was Luke?" She asks with slight anger in her voice. She knew what I was trying to say, she was just trying to get me to say it.

"Dan-" she cuts me off by standing up.

"You're telling me that you think that Luke was the one behind the phone call?" she asks loudly.

"I don't think. I know." I say.

"No. You're wrong. Luke has stooped down to some low levels Ashton, but he wouldn't do that to you. He wouldn't do that to me." She says causing the tears we both wiped away to come back. I didn't know what to say to her. Whenever I see her upset it's like my mind just shuts off everything else and all I can think about is how to make her smile again.

Daniella's POV

"No. You're wrong. Luke has stooped down to some low levels Ashton but he wouldn't do that to you. He wouldn't do that to me." I say expecting Ashton to say something back immediately but he doesn't. Luke wouldn't do that. Would he? If Luke loved me then why would he hurt Ashton if he knew he made me happy. But then again Luke loves me and seeing me with Ashton is hurting him and I know by experience that people don't make good decisions when they're hurt. But still. what Luke did, how am I supposed to look at him the same way again? How am I supposed to forgive him? I won't. I can't.

"How could he do that to you Ash-"

"He was hurt. He obviously wasn't thinking straight." Ashton replies.

"I haven't been thinking straight for a whole fucking week and I haven't pulled any shit like that." I reply angrily.

"Daniella you can't be mad at him. Please." Ashton pleads.

"Give me one reason I shouldn't be mad. Give me one good reason why the hell you're not mad." I snap back and Ashton says nothing. Nothing he says is going to change my mind. But he can try at least. "Ashton!-"

"Because! I owe my happiness to Luke. He threw away his own for mine. Luke has unknowingly given me the only reason I have for being able to be happy, and smile." Ashton finally says standing up and grabbing my arms. I pull away from them and I stand back.

"I'm sick and tired of Luke using that excuse! Sure we are here because he let you ask me out, but when he saw how happy you were, he wanted to destroy it! I don't know about you Ashton, but crushing someones happiness definitely out-weighs giving it to them!" I yell.

"I forgave Luke and you should too." Ashton says loudly.

"How can you forgive him?! And don't say it's because of me!" I shout.

"Because he didn't just give me you! He gave me the band. He gave me a family! I know Luke doesn't think about it, but if he hadn't made that channel then 5 Seconds Of Summer wouldn't be here and neither would I. You know where I would be Dani-"

"Stop!" I say bursting back into tears. Ashton walks over to me, his eyes watery, and he pulls me into his chest. "I don't want to think about that. I don't want to think of the world without you." I say sobbing into Ashton's shirt. He rubs my back gently and leans his chin on the top of my head.

"All this time I thought that the band and music was my reason for living. And it was for a while but then something just didn't feel right. That is until I met you. You're my everything Dan. You're my reason for living." Ashton has told me I was his everything before. But never in our time together has he said I was his reason for living.

"Your reason for living?" I say looking up at him.

"If I knew you were going to die tomorrow, I would want to die tonight because I wouldn't want to live another day without you." Ashton whispers and I grab his cheeks and I pull him in for a kiss. I can taste the saltiness of our tears running down in between our lips.

"Ash-"

"It's true. I don't know how I made it through life without you Dani. I think the only reason I made it through my darkest times was because deep down inside, someway, somehow, I felt... I knew I would find you." Ashton says, sniffling.

"I love you so fucking much." I say and I give him another kiss.

"Please. Just please forgive Luke." he finally pleads. He was right. As much as I hate what Luke did, I have to forgive him. I understand now what Luke has done for me, for Ashton.

"I will. I promise." I say and this time it was me who pulled his head into my chest and I held him closely against me, feeling his fingers cling into my shirt.

After a couple of minutes I hear the door open. I pull away from Ashton and wipe away my tears and then his. The guys walk in and awkwardly step aside so that Luke is in clear sight. Not that he wasn't before, I could spot that giraffe from miles away but it was still a nice gesture.

He looks at me a little worried. His head is facing downwards but he's looking up at me, which I'd never thought would happen. He's fumbling with his hands and keeps glancing between the two of us, like a guilty puppy. I didn't know what to do, what to say. I wanted to forgive him, for Ashton.

Then out of no where, I just decide to walk up to him and hug him. He's shocked at first,based on the fact that he's gone completely stiff, and looks to Ashton behind me. Ashton nods and smiles a little, allowing Luke to wrap his arms around me, hugging me back tightly. His breathing calms and he rests his head on my shoulder, burying his face into my neck. I pull away and smile at him. He looks at me with so much appreciation and gratefulness, you'd think I had just saved his life. Maybe in some way, I did.

"Thank you." I say, "I never thanked you for doing what you did, so I will now, thank you Luke, for everything." He smiles and Ashton comes up from behind me and wraps his arm around my waist. He looks at Luke and the other guys and I know what he's thinking. For the first time since I met these boys, everything was ok. No more drama, no more crazy love proposals, nothing.

"You're my brother Luke. Nothing will ever change that." Ashton says and lets go of my waist so that he and Luke can have a giant man-hug.

"I'm never going to hurt you again." Luke whispers. I see Ashton's grip tighten around Luke and I begin to smile. Brothers once again.

"So, now that everyone has made up, I think it's time we all got some sleep. I don't know about you guys, but I'm exhausted." Calum says from behind Luke. I yawn and slowly remember how tired I am.

"Yeah, I'm pretty stumped as well." I say covering my mouth with my hand.

"We should probably get back to our room, goodnight guys." Michael says smiling at us.

"Goodnight" I say and look at each and everyone of their smiles. I spent so much time focusing on Ashton's smile and missing Luke's, I never noticed how amazing Calum and Michael's smiles were. Michael and Luke made it down the hallway and had gone inside their room, but Calum was still a bit behind. I run out to catch him. "Calum." I call after him and he turns around to look at me.

"Yeah?" He replies.

"Thanks for being there for me." I say.

"You've already thanked me Dani. It's what friends do." Calum says smiling.

"I know, but I mean it. No matter what happens in the future I hope we can always be friends. You're one of the best friends anyone could ever ask for. The boys are lucky to have you Cal. They really are." I say and I see Calum blush. I walk up to him and give him a quick hug.

"And now we all have you. That makes us even more lucky. Goodnight, Dani..." Calum says before he releases me and begins to walk down the hallway.

He stops before he walks into his room he turns back to face me. "Don't make it too late, we need him tomorrow." He says and we both chuckle.

"Dude it's like 3 in the morning! If they do it that late I'd be very impressed with them." I hear one of the boys shout from the room.

"Go to bed!" I hear Ashton shout back from behind me. He has the ears of a hawk. He takes me by the hand and we walk back to the room. I stand outside of the room, waiting for him to open the door, finally allowing my exhaustion to show its' self and close my eyes for a moment.

He chuckles. "Babe, you can't sleep out here." He looks at me from inside the room.

I stretch out my arms and yawn. "Carry me?"

He smiles tiredly and walks over to me, placing one arm under my knees and one under my arms. I wrap my arms around his neck and he picks me up. He carries me to the bed after closing the door with his foot and lays me carefully down on the sheets. He unlaces my shoes and lays them by the bed. He grabs my pj's and takes off my jeans and changes my shirt.

At this point I was too tired so it was nice to have someone take care of me. He lifts the sheets up from under me and tucks me in. After that he quickly takes off his shirt and pants and gets in next to me. He turns off the light and wraps his arms around me, flipping me slowly so that I'm facing him. I can see him smile through the darkness as he rests his hand on my waist. He slowly moves a piece of hair out of my face and tucks it behind my ear. My eyes are slowly drifting closed as sleep starts to take me. He kisses me on the forehead and puts his hand back around my back. He pulls me in so that I'm resting on his shoulder.

"I love you." He whispers.

Before I finally fall asleep I manage to mumble back,

"I love you too."


	27. Chapter 27

***3 Weeks Later***

All of us sat on the ground of the living room of the L.A House and the guys had moved the furniture out of the way so that there was room for us to move about. It was their last night in the L.A. house for a long while. We had gotten back from the U.S tour only three weeks ago. Up until everything had settled down with Luke, Ashton, and I, I felt as if the tour was never going to end. I felt as if I was stuck in that whirlwind forever. But after that one night in New Orleans my mind cleared itself, at least for now, and the rest of the tour went by without a trace. But over the past few days my mind is beginning to spin again with the thought of these last nights with Ashton. They are going to London for some extra Europe show dates tomorrow. I know I should be focusing on the positives and be happy that I had these last few days to spend with Ash, and I have been, but now it was the last night and I don't know what to feel. And now here we are, all five of us together, in the living room, on the last night, playing twister.

"Okay so before I lay out the twister mat I would just like to clear up some rules." Calum says and everyone rolls their eyes at him.

"Calum everyone knows the rules to twister." Michael says laughing.

"No. These are my rules." Calum replies back.

"Your rules? Okay Cal, what are 'your' rules?" Ash says doing the quote signs with his fingers. Ash looks to me and smiles. His left arm is wrapped around my shoulder and I am sitting with my knees up leaning up against him.

"Well I'll tell you Ashton. There is really only one rule. Since past incidents that occurred on MY-" Calum puts the emphasis on my and points to himself "twister mat. The only rule I have for tonight and for anyone who ever wants to use MY twister game is-"

"just get on with it Calum!" Luke shouts impatiently.

"There will be absolutely no sex on this mat." Calum finally says and me, Michael, and Luke laugh but Ashton just sits there quietly smiling at the ground and shaking his head. He finally looks up at Calum and says,

"Smooth Cal. smooth." Ash says kissing me on the cheek.

"I'm sorry bro but I had to power wash it." Calum says giggling.

"We didn't actually have sex on the twister mat Cal." I say.

"Who cares. Let's just get on with it. Who is going first?" Michael finally says.

"Ladies first?" Ashton says smirking at me. I squint my eyes and nose at him.

"Fine." I say as I get up and I step onto the mat. Luke picks up the spinner and gives it a flick.

"Left hand red." Luke says smiling at me. It was amazing and so relieving to see Luke really smile again. I could tell he wasn't faking being happy like he was before, even though it wasn't that hard to tell because he was literally shit at faking his feelings. I smiled back at him and I reach way up into the sky and then I slam my hand down on the red dot.

"Boom. Done. Next." I say flipping my hair with my left hand.

"She gets quite competitive. Last time she blamed me for her loss." Ashton says.

"That's because you wouldn't stop-" I pause thinking about that day we played twister the night before we left on that journey of problems. I think about the way he kissed me and the way he touched me and then I start to think about how I was going to miss him so desperately. "That's because you wouldn't stop tickling me." I decided to use the word tickling instead of the other words because I wasn't really in the mood for the other guys' jokes about Ash and I's physical relationship. Even though Calum's joke about the mat was pretty fucking funny.

"Hey babe if you want to make excuses go ahead." Ashton says jokingly getting ready for his turn.

"Alright Ash left hand blue." Luke says enthusiastically. Ashton walks over and places his left hand over my body and puts his hand on the blue dot next to mine. I can feel his torso leaning up against my side and I can feel him breathing on my neck.

"Don't slip and crush me." I tell him.

"Don't worry babe I won't crush your body. I'll just crush you at this game." Ashton says slamming his lips against mine.

"Hell no. I'm going to crush every single one of you." Michael gets up and Luke tells him to place his right foot yellow.

After a long while of turns Ash and I are the final ones on the mat and we are finally tangled so much that one wrong move at this point can cause one of us to tumble.

"Okay Ash you ready." Calum says flicking the spinner. "Right foot green." Calum says proudly knowing that if Ashton moves his right foot he will no doubt slip. I smirk at myself, finally, I know I love him but I want to beat him. His right and left hands were on red, his right foot was on green and his left foot was on blue. If he moved his right foot he would be in pushup position and I know Ash is strong but there is no way he could hold that position for longer than a few minutes. Ashton hesitantly slides his right foot to a green dot and now he was holding his weight up with just his toes and arms. I stared at the way his muscles tensed up and I imagined his strong arms around me. Stop it. I can't think about those things right now if I do I'll start to miss them and I can't be sad right now. I have to focus.

"Can you hold it babe?" I ask him.

"If anyone should know it's you babe. I can go all night." Ashton whispers in my ear. His face is starting to turn red, he looks at me and smirks. I begin to blush and my hands become clammy.

"Oh really?" I say and I pop my hip out sending Ash falling down onto his side.

"DANI WINS!" Michael shouts.

"That's not fair you bumped me!" Ashton says lying down on the floor.

"Hey babe if you want to make excuses." I say mocking what he said to me at the beginning of the game. He gives me an uneasy smirk and then he grabs my legs and me slam onto the mat.

"Ow Ashton!" I say smiling. All the guys giggle.

"Alright well we're going to dinner. We have reservations." Luke says helping you up.

"Alright well we'll see you later tonight then." Ashton says to them and they all wave goodbye and leave. Ashton and I went to dinner with everyone last night so that we could have some alone time tonight.

"They're gone. Thank goodness!" Ash says lifting me up and twirling me around. He slowly slides me down, causing my shirt to lift up slightly, and our bodies slide up against each others until we are face to face and my arms are wrapped around his neck.

"The night is still young. What do you want to do?" he asks. The truth was I don't know what I want to do. He said the night was young which was true it was only 8:30 P.M. but I could feel it moving by fast. To fast. Why was it that the moments we want to last forever only seem to last for a few seconds. I can't think of anything I want to do but just talk and lay in his arms. "Babe?" he asks me. He must've noticed I was lost in thought.

"Hmm oh. No Ash it's up to you. This is your last day. What do you want to do?" I say smiling at him. He looks down and I can tell he was starting to get sad about the circumstances as well.

"You know what I have a great idea, grab your coat we are going outside." Ashton says giving me a peck on the cheek and I walk upstairs to get my coat wondering what Ashton could possibly be thinking.

I open the front door and am greeted by a grinning Ashton.

"What?" I ask, "Why are you so excited?". He just smiles back at me and reaches out his hand, offering it to me. I roll my eyes playfully, and grab it. He pulls me through the backyard and down the little staircase out by the fence. The house was on a cliff so there was a little platform not far down. We got down to the wooden platform and Ash sits down on one of the chairs pulling me on top of him. "Ash what are we doing?" I ask again, getting a little annoyed at his secrecy.

"Look up." He simply says. I just do as I'm told and smile. We look at the sky full of stars. We were in L.A. so there weren't that many due to the light pollution, but the longer you looked, the more you'd see. They were beautiful. We sat there for a moment and just looked at the stars.

"You see that one?" He says out of the blue, pointing his hand at a star in the sky.

"Mhmm." I reply.

"Do you like it?" He asks me again. I laugh a little because of the strange question.

"Yeah, I guess." I say. I can feel him smiling from behind me and he pulls something out of his pocket. He's silent for a moment and so am I, it's just quiet.

"When I'm gone," he starts. I frown as I remember what's happening tomorrow. For a moment I had forgotten that he'd be leaving me. "I want you to look at that star, and think of us." I smile a little, where was this going? "I want you to think about all of the times we had on tour. I want you to think about everything we've been through, good and bad." My mind wonders to Luke when he says that. "I want you to think about how much I love you." I giggle when he says that.

"How will I know how much you love me?" I ask.

"Just know I love you from here, to that star, and back, times a million." He says cheekily from behind me. "And, to be exact, that is 335,201,309 light years away." He adds. I'm confused for a moment and turn to him,

"How do you kno-" he pulls a piece of paper out and holds it in front of me,

"Because of this." I take the paper from him and read it. It's a certificate. A certificate for a star.

"Wha-"

"Its yours. Say hello to Daniella Irwin." I smile. Wait, did he say Daniella Irwin? As in his last name?

"Wait, did you say Irwin?" I ask him.

"Yeah, I thought it had a nicer ring to it." He replies. I decide to mess with him a little.

"So what, you don't like my last name? What's wrong with Conners?" He suddenly stops and gets really worried and flustered.

"No! There's nothing wrong with- I mean, it's great- I just thought- ummm..." I laugh and he relaxes a bit. "You're messing with me." He says, understanding.

"Mhmm." I laugh a little.

"That's not nice." He says, rubbing his hands over my stomach.

"Well I'm not the nicest person." I reply, turning my body to face him.

"No you're not." He grins smugly at me. I kiss him and his hands move down to my lower back. I run my hands through his hair and he smiles. I pull away a little and rest my forehead against his. "I'm gonna miss you so much." I say, upset. He puts his hand on my cheek and rubs it with his thumb.

"You have no idea. But hey, it's only a couple of weeks, I'll be back before you know it." He says, trying to remain positive. I can tell he's hiding his disappointment but it's nice to have him try.

"I know, but 3 weeks can be a long time when I'm not next to you." I admit.

"I know babe, I know."

"And I just feel like if you go, bad things are going to happen."

"Hey, Dan..." Ashton says lifting my chin up with his fingers. His hazel eyes stare into mine and he smiles. "The worst is over. Everything is going to be okay." He says and I lean in and kiss him as I run my hands through his curls and I feel his hands rub up and down my back. I pull away slowly and he rests his lips on my forehead.

"Do you promise?" I ask.

"I promise."

 **END OF BOOK ONE**


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